UC-NRLF 


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LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University  of  California. 

GIFT    OF 

Gen.  Chas? R,  Greenleaf. 

n,                                    BIOLOGY 
LlaSS                            LIBRARY 

CIRCULAR    No.    9. 


WAR  DEPARTMENT, 
SURGEON  GENERAL'S  OFFICE, 

WASHINGTON,  MARCH  1,  1877. 


REPORT  TO  THE  SURGEON  GENERAL 


ox  Tin: 


TRANSPORT  OF  SICK  AND  WOUNDED 


i;v 


PACK   ANIMALS. 


By  GEORGE  A.  OTIS, 
jigTANT  Burgeon,  U.  B.  Army. 


UNIVERSITY 

Of 


WASH  [NGTON 

001  BBS  U  i:n  r   PRINTING  OFFIC  E 

1877. 


Uf/^0  3 

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WOLGGY 
LIBRARY 


CIRCULAR    No.  9. 


WAR   DEPARTMENT, 

Surgeon  General's  Office, 

Washington,  March  1,  1877. 
With    Uie    approval   of  the    Honorable   Secretary  of   War,    the    following    Report, 
upon  the  different  modes  of  transporting  sick  and  wounded  men  in  localities  inaccessible 
to  wheeled  vehicles,  embodying  the  experience   of  many  years  and  various  campaigns, 
ie  published  for  the  information  of  the  Medical  Officers  of  the  Army. 

JOSEPH  K.  P.AJLYKS. 

Surgeon  General  U.  8.  A, 


218874 


REPORT  TO  THE  SURGEON  GENERAL 


TRANSPORT  OF  SICK  AND  WOUNDED 


BY 


PACK   ANIMALS. 


IIY 

GEORGE   A.   OTIS, 
Assistant  Surgeon,  U.  8.  Army. 


GENERAL:  The  subject  of  the  transport  of  sick  and  wounded  by  pack  animals  has  latterly 
attracted  much  attention  in  the  army.  For  several  years,  the  contests  with  Indian  savages 
in  .which  the  troops  have  engaged  have  been  of  unusual  magnitude  and  difficulty;  the  expe- 
ditions have  frequently  penetrated  into  unexplored  regions,  and  the  engagements  have  taken 
place  in  situations  altogether  inaccessible  to  wheeled  vehicles.  The  conditions  of  such  warfare 
entail  the  necessity  of  modifying  the  arrangements  for  providing  surgical  assistance  for  the- 
wounded  or  disabled.  The  ambulance  equipment  must  be  able  to  keep  up  with  the  troops,  and 
not  to  interfere  with  their  rapid  movements;  must  provide  the  essentials  of  surgical  aid  far  from 
abase  of  supply;  and  often  improvise  for  the  comfort  of  the  wounded  appliances  that  cannot 
possibly  be  transported.  Uuder  these  circumstances,  officers  have  recalled  the  expedients  of  the 
hardy  explorers  of  the  frontiers,  and  have  endeavored  to  improve  them  or  to  adapt  them  to  unex- 
pected exigencies;  and  a  number  of  interesting  reports  on  the  various  devices  employed  have  been 
transmitted  to  your  office.  In  accordance  with  your  instructions  to  collect  and  arrange  these 
documents,  and  to  combine  them  with  such  other  information  on  the  subject  as  may  appear  to  be  ot 
interest,  I  have  had  the  honor  to  prepare  this  report. 

When  it  is  recollected  that  it  was  not  until  the  close  of  the  last  century  that  any  systematic 
ambulance  service  was  adopted  in  civilized  armies,  and  only  within  twenty  years  that  the  complete- 
ness of  organization  now  attained  in  some  European  armies  has  been  acquired;  and  when  consider- 
ation is  given  to  the  alterations  that  have  taken  place  in  these  periods  in  the  destructive  power  of 
fire-arms,  the  increased  proportion  of  severe  wounds,  the  celerity  in  movements  and  combination  of 
troops,  it  seems  not  remarkable  that  frequent  revision  of  ambulance  matSriel  and  administration 
should  be  required.  There  was  never  a  time  when  more  attention  was  paid  than  at  present  to  the 
improvement  of  the  destructive  implements  of  war,  and  the  most  effective  methods  of  employing 
1 


Z  TRANSPORT   OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 

them,1  and  it  is  assuredly  of  pressing  necessity  that  corresponding  efforts  should  be  made  for  the 
abridgment  or  mitigation  of  the  sufferings  and  preservation  of  the  lives  of  those  exposed  to  such 
formidable  means  of  aggression.  For  the  interests  of  the  sick  and  wounded  are  not  alone  involved 
in  the  efficiency  with  which  the  ambulance  service  is  performed.  The  strategic  plans  of  the  com- 
mander are  promoted  or  thwarted  according  as  the  work  is  done  well  or  ill ;  and,  above  all,  the 
spirit  of  the  soldiers,  their  tone  of  feeling  and  confidence  in  time  of  danger,  is  much  affected  by 
their  estimate  of  the  provision  made  for  their  succor,  should  they  be  disabled  in  action.  A  veteran 
soldier,  Marshal  Bugeaud,  after  his  African  victories,  declared  that  "the  courage  of  the  French 
troops  would  not  perhaps  have  sufficed  for  the  conquest  of  Algeria,  if  we  had  not  been  able  to  save 
the  sick  and  wounded  from  the  Arabs."  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  any  neglect  in  providing  for 
the  comfort  of  sick  and  wounded  men  will  be  without  depressing  influence  on  the  morale  of  troops 
of  our  army  employed  in  Indian  hostilities,  and  inspired  with  a  traditional  dread  of  the  tortures 
that  await  them  should  they  fall  captives  to  their  savage  opponents. 

The  introduction  of  measures  tending  to  the  establishment  of  an  ambulance  system  in  the 
United  States  Army  is  of  recent  date;8  yet  it  has  been  acknowledged  by  the  most  competent  foreign 
authorities,3  that  toward  the  close  of  the  late  war  our  sanitary  field  service  had  attained  a  thorough 
organization;  and,  particularly,  that  the  difficult  problem  of  the  speedy  and  comfortable  trans- 
port of  the  wounded  from  the  battle-fields  had  been  dealt  with  creditably,  in  the  face  of  great 
obstacles.  It  would  be  deplorable  should  the  efficiency  of  our  ambulance  service  even  relatively 
retrograde ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  it  can  be  kept  up  to  the  standard  attained  by  the  great 
military  powers  without  constant  efforts  to  improve  the  equipment,  both  in  providing  against  the 
causes  of  failure  revealed  by  experience,  aud  by  devising  expedients  for  unusual  exigencies. 

Fortunately,  progress  in  the  improvement  of  the  equipment  provided  for  the  ambulance4 
service  tends  to  simplicity  rather  than  complexity.  The  costliness  of  maintaining,  in  time  of 
peace,  establishments  required  only  in  time  of  war,  is  an  argument  often  urged  against  all  branches 
of  the  military  service,  which,  whatever  its  relevancy  to  armaments  of  war  in  general,  has  little 
validity  as  applied  to  the  ambulance  service.  The  greater  part  of  its  material  can  be  utilized  in 
time  of  peace;  its  necessary  outfit  need  not  be  large  or  extravagantly  expensive.  But  it  is  of  the 
last  importance,  as  long  as  the  necessity  of  standing  armies  is  accepted,  that  the  sanitary  appli- 
ances furnished  should  be  the  best  of  their  kind,  that,  when  an  emergency  arises,  there  may  not 
be  a  lavish  outlay  for  unserviceable  material,  nor  avoidable  suffering  from  the  want  of  suitable 
equipment.  The  material  required  in  a  complete  system  of  army  hospital  transport  may  be  classified 
as:  1,  stretchers  or  litters5  carried  by  men;  2,  litters  wheeled  by  men;  3,  conveyances  borne  by 
animals  (litters,  cacolets);  4,  conveyances  drawn  by  animals  (ambulance  wagons).  Moreover, 
although  its  appliances  need  not  be  kept  on  hand,  there  should  be  a  matured  system  for  the  trans- 
port of  sick  aud  wounded  by  railway  and  by  water,  defining  all  details,  that,  in  view  of  an  impend- 
ing war,  the  requisite  resources  may  be  promptly  accumulated.     When  more  attention  has  been 

1  Although,  in  the  late  war,  the  troops  were  armed,  for  the  most  part,  with  muzzle-loading  muskets  and  smooth-bore  cannon,  our  present  inferiority 
in  ordnance  is  not  willingly  conceded  ;  but  it  is  held  that,  theoretically  at  least,  our  improvements  in  gunnery  keep  pace  with  those  of  other  nations. 

1  During  the  war  of  the  first  French  republic,  in  1796,  LAKKKY  and  1'KltCY  introduced  plans  for  providing  primary  surgical  aid  for  those  wounded 
in  battle,  styled  by  one  ambulance  volante,  and  by  the  other  chirurgie  dc  batailU.  As  M.  Legouest  remarks  { Traiti  de  Chir.  d'Armie,  18113,  p.  97ft), 
they  were  the  first  organizers  of  the  ambulance  systems  now  employed,  with  the  modifications  suggested  by  time  and  experience,  in  all  civilized  armies. 
In  the  United  States,  while  efficient  measures  of  giving  surgical  help  to  the  combatants  were  not  altogether  neglected  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  the  cam- 
paigns in  Florida  and  Mexico,  the  first  attempt  to  introduce  a  regular  ambulauoe  system  dates  from  the  assembling  of  a  Board  convened  October  18, 1859. 
In  March,  1864,  Congress  enacted  a  bill  for  the  uniform  ambulance  system  for  the  armies  then  ill  the  field. 

3 I.ONGMOUE  (T.)  (Encyc.  Britan.,  9th  ed.,  1H75,  Vol.  I,  p.  665) :  "In  the  armies  of  the  United  States  during  the  late  great  civil  war,  the  ambu- 
lance system  attained  a  very  complete  organization."  The  two-horse  "  Wheeling  "  ambulance  wagon  may  be  regarded  as  a  model  on  which  most  of 
the  recent  attempts  to  devise  an  improved  form  of  ambulance  vehicle  have  been  bused.  The  HAL8TEA1)  folding  stretcher  has  been  pronounced  by  Pro- 
fessor UUKLT,  of  Berlin,  an  almost  ideal  stretcher,  "if  it  only  had  a  head-rest."  HAltuie'H  method  of  suspending  litters  by  rubber  rings;  SMITH'k  and 
HODGEN's  wire-suspension  splints,  and  many  minor  appliances  devised  ia  this  country  for  the  improvement  of  the  field  sanitary  service,  have  been 
commended  and  adopted  abroad. 

4  Ambulance  is  a  term  first  applied  to  the  French  "ambulance"  (Itdpital  ambulant),  derived  from  the  Latin  ambulare,  to  move  from  place  to  place. 
As  defined  by  LlTTltK  (Diet,  de  la  Langue  Francaise,  1873,  P.  I,  p.  125),  they  are  "temporary  hospital  establishments,  organized  near  the  divisions  of  an 
army,  to  follow  their  movements  and  to  assure  early  succor  to  the  wounded.''  Surgeon-General  Longmoke  remarks  (Encyc.  Britan.,  9th  ed.,  1875, 
T.  I,  p.  665)  that  "  the  term  is  not  unfrequently  misapplied  in  common  speech  in  England  to  the  ambulance  wagons  or  other  conveyances  by  which  the 
wounded  are  carried  from  the  field  to  the  ambulances  hospitals ;"  and  this  abuse  of  the  term  is  almost  universal  in  the  United  States. 

*  Litter,  Lectica  (from  lectus,  bed),  according  to  Uke's  Cyclopaedia,  Vol.  XXII,  a  kind  of  vehicle  borne  upon  shafts,  anciently  esteemed  the  most 
easy  and  genteel  way  of  carriage.  PLINY  calls  the  litter  the  traveller's  chamber.  It  was  imicli  in  use  among  the  Romans,  among  whom  it  was  borne  by 
slaves  kept  for  that  purpose ;  as  it  still  continues  to  tie  in  the  East,  where  it  is  called  a  jtalanquin.  'Flit-  invention  of  litters.  pcoonUng  to  C'K'EHO,  was 
owing  to  the  kings  of  Bithynia.  In  the  time  of  TlHEKIL'H  they  were  become  very  frequent  at  Rome,  as  appears  from  SENECA.  Horse-litters  were  much 
used  in  Europe  prior  to  the  introduction  of  coaches. 


BY    PACK    ANIMALS.  6 

paid  to  the  subject,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  hand-stretcher1  (brancard,  Tragebahre)  may  be  so 
perfected  as  to  serve  as  the  uniform  means  of  support  in  almost  all  military  exigencies,  for  patients 
who  require  transport  in  a  recumbent  position.  Eventually,  it  will  probably  be  so  constructed  as  to 
answer  not  only  as  a  litter  to  be  carried  by  men,  but  as  the  permanent  couch  for  the  soldier  from 
the  moment  he  is  disabled  until  he  reaches  a  fixed  hospital,  having  such  adjustments  that  it  may 
be  placed  on  wheels  and  drawn  by  men,  or  be  carried  by  pack-animals,2  or  laid  on  springs  or  swung 
in  special  ambulance  wagons,  supply  wagons,  or  other  wheeled  vehicles  drawn  by  animals,  or 
transported  by  rail  or  on  water.  The  difficulty  of  adapting  any  appliance  to  various  uses  without 
sacrificing  some  things  desirable  in  each,  is  obvious;  but  the  importance,  in  army  organization,  of 
uniformity  in  equipment  is  so  imperious  that  I  cannot  doubt  that,  ultimately,  the  hand-stretcher, 
so  adjusted  as  to  be  readily  combined  with  the  various  means  of  transport,  will  come  to  be  regarded 
as  an  implement  as  essential  in  the  sanitary  outfit  as  the  musket  and  spade  in  military  operations. 
Notwithstanding  the  mauy  improvements  of  late  years,  the  hospital  transport  service  is  still  gen- 
erally esteemed  the  least  perfected  of  any  branch  of  the  military  organization  for  campaigning.3 
And  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  imperfect  state  of  the  arrangements  for  this  service  becomes 
painfully  apparent  when  troops  are  employed  remote  from  railway  or  water  transportation,  and 
especially  when  they  are  serving  in  regions  impracticable  for  wheeled  vehicles,  where  the  sick  and 
wounded  must  be  carried,  either  by  men  or  quadrupeds. 

Various  beasts  of  burthen  have  been  used  for  transporting  disabled  men,  and,  in  a  systematic 
disquisition  on  the  subject,  it  would  be  proper  to  relate  how  each  has  been  found  useful  under 
certain  circumstances,  and  to  describe  the  conveyances  most  appropriate  for  them  to  carry.  But, 
in  our  army,  mules  and  horses  are  exclusively  employed  as  pack-auimals;4  and  attention  may  be 
here  restricted  to  the  conveyance  of  disabled  men  by  them.  The  special  purpose  of  this  report 
is  to  record  recent  observations  of  medical  officers  on  the  practical  working  of  horse  and  mule 
litters  over  considerable  distances  in  difficnlt  country;  but,  incidentally,  former  experiences  on  the 
subject  will  be  recalled,  the  methods  practised  iu  other  armies  adverted  to,  and  such  reference 
made,  as  space  will  admit,  to  the  utilization  of  other  quadrupeds  for  sick  transport,  to  different 
plaus  of  packing,  and  to  other  information  having  a  practical  bearing  on  the  subject. 

In  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  in  the  war  with  the  mother  country  in  1812-13,  our  armies 
were  unprovided  with  any  ambulance  system.5  During  the  hostilities  against  the  Seminole  Indians, 
in  Florida,  however,  in  1835-38,  it  appears  that  the  wounded  were  methodically  transported  for 
long  distances,  by  special  ambulance  wagons  or  by  horse-litters,  and  that  the  medical  director  of 
the  troops,  the  now  venerable  Brigadier-General  Richard  S.  Satterlee,  organized  the  personnel  as 
well  as  the  maUriel  of  the  medical  field-service  as  systematically  and  effectively  as  the  desultory 

1  Stretchers  appear  to  derive  their  name,  as  Professor  I,on<;more  remarks  {op.  eit.,  p.  115)  "from  the  fact  of  the  sustaining  canvas  being  stn-t.  In  <i 
within  a  frame/'  Brancard,  the  French  term,  is  derived  from  the  two  poles  {branches)  between  which  the  supporting  canvas  is  held.  This  is  M. 
Ll  itre'k  etymology ;  and  Baron  PERCY  states  that  the  word  was  formerly  written  branchard.  Tragebahre,  the  German  term,  is  derived  from  tragen 
(to  carry),  and  Bahre,  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  baer,  English  bier. 

*  A  plan  by  which  patients  supported  on  hand-stretchers  were  successfully  carried  on  the  backs  of  the  trained  mules  the  French  took  with  them 
to  Mexico,  in  18o4,  will  be  hereafter  described. 

*  M.  L.  I.F.C.0UK8T,  professor  of  surgery  at  Val-de-Grace,  in  the  edition  of  his  classic  TraiU  dt  Chirurgie  (TArmcc,  published  after  his  experience 
in  the  Franco-German  War  of  1870-91,  concludes  that :  "the  removal  of  the  wounded  from  the  battle-field  and  their  transport  to  the  ambulance  stations  is 
the  most  defective  part  of  the  army  medical  field  service"  {op.  cit.,  ed.  1872,  p.  779).     Surgeon-General  T.  LONOMORE,  professor  of  surgery  at  the  army 

;il  school  at  Netley,  declares  ( Treatite  of  the  Transport  of  Sick  and  Wounded  Troops,  1809,  p.  1)  that  "the  established  arrangements  for  this 
service  are  generally  regarded  ...  as  the  most  defective  part  of  military  organization,  as  they  are  certainly  of  the  medical  departmental  organiza- 
tion in  armies." 

4  Horses,  mules,  asses,  oxen,  camels,  Hamas,  and  elephants  have  been  used  for  transporting  wounded.  The  experiment  of  using  camels  as  a  means 
of  transport  in  the  desert  regions  of  Texas  and  New  Mexico,  introduced,  I  believe,  through  the  efforts  of  the  Egyptian  traveller  O.  R.  GI.IIMKJN  and  of 
Colonel  < ;.  II.  Crosmax,  Assistant  Quartermaster  General,  was  in  a  fair  way  of  proving  a  valuable  addition  to  the  means  of  transport  in  our  army.  The 
animals  thrived  and  multiplied,  and  rendered  good  service.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  l.tte  war  the  herds  were  dispersed.  It  has  been  stated,  but  I  am 
unable  to  verify  the  report,  that,  about  this  time,  most  of  these  animals  were  sold  to  circus  managers  or  farmers  by  persons  responsible  for  public  property. 
Thore  were  still  one  or  two  camels  rendering  good  services  at  posts  in  Arizona  as  late  as  1870.  No  attempt  to  renew  the  promising  experiment  of 
acclimating  the  camel  and  employing  it  for  army  transport  has  been  made  since  the  war. 

*  "  The  origin  of  the  ambulance  system  which  now  prevails  in  all  civilized  armies,  though  variously  modified  among  them  in  particular  details, 
only  dates  from  the  last  decade  of  the  lost  century"  (Loxomore,  Encyc.  Britan.,  !tth  ed.,  1875,  Vol.  I,  p.  MB).  Before  then,  wounded  soldiers  were 
either  carried  to  the  rear  by  comrades,  or  were  left  exposed  and  unheeded  until  the  fighting  was  over.  Surgical  assistance  often  reached  the  field  only 
on  the  day  after  the  battle  or  even  later,  when  it  was  of  no  avail  to  a  large  proportion  of  the  wounded.  It  was  in  179ti,  during  the  Italian  campaigns 
{Lodi,  Areola,  Kivoli),  that  the  illustrious  LtRRKY  organized  his  system  of  ambulance  volanlts,  and  PERCY  soon  afterward  introduced  a  somewhat 
similar  establishment,  with  a  corps  of  brancarilirrl  or  stretcher -liourers  (Mfm.  de  Chir.  Mil.  el  Campagnes  de  I).  J.  I.ARREY,  1812,  T.  I,  p.  150). 
NAPOI.ROX  I  warmly  sustained  LARRK.V  in  Ml  enil,  nvnr.-  to  jterfect  the  new  system  of  immediate  aid  to  the  wounded  in  battle.  In  like  manner,  during 
the  late  war  in  this  country.  General  Gram"  showed  a  keen  solicitude  in  the  safe  transport  of  the  wounded,  always  maintaining  intimate  relations  with 
_the  medical  officer  directing  that  service,  and  promoting  his  plans.  Before  Petersburg  he  personally  supervised  experiments  with  the  methods  proposed 
by  Lanoek  and  others  for  fitting  up  the  emptied  carriages  of  the  supply  train  for  the  comfortable  removal  of  the  sick  and  wounded. 


TRANSPORT   OF   SICK   AND   WOUNDED 


nature  of  tbe  campaign  would  allow.  In  a  report  to  the  Surgeon  General,  dated  Fort  Brook,  Tampa 
Bay,  Florida,  January  5,  1838,  Dr.  Satterlee  described  the  measures  taken  for  the  aid  of  the 
wounded  after  the  engagement  at  Okeechobee:1 

"Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  the  brigade  to  which  I  am  attached  as  Medical  Director  lias  had  a  very 
severe  engagement  with  the  Mickasuckie  and  Seminole  Indians,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  this  place,  near  a  lake 
called  O-kee-cho-bee ;  it  took  place  on  the  twenty-fifth  ultimo,  and  lasted  nearly  two  hours,  and  resulted  in  the  total  defeat  of 
the  Indians,  but  with  great  loss  to  our  troops  in  killed  and  wounded.1  Under  the  circumstances,  as  we  had  no  permanent 
hospital  nearer  than  this,  and  as  the  troops  must,  from  the  nature  of  the  country,  retire  from  it  long  before  the  wounded  could 
recover,  I  deemed  it  proper  to  bring  them  immediately  to  this  place.  I  arrived  with  them  last  evening,  and  have  now  the  satis- 
faction to  say  that  they  are  in  comfortable  quarters.  I  found  the  ambulances  very  serviceable,  but  as  some  of  the  wounded  ■ 
could  not  be  transported  in  them  on  account  of  the  roughness  of  the  road,  between  thirty  and  forty  of  them  were  brought,  a 
part  of  the  way,  on  litters  between  two  horses.  This  is  a  very  comfortable  means  of  transportation,  but  difficult  on  account  of 
the  number  of  men  and  horses  required.  I  have  requested  the  quartermaster  to  have  twenty  litters  constructed  here,  except 
the  poles,  which  I  think  can  be  obtained  in  the  woods.  We  were  obliged  to  use  blankets,  and  raw-hides  of  the  cattle  which  we 
found  on  our  way,  but  the  length  of  time  taken  to  construct  them,  together  with  the  want  of  proper  tools,  and  at  a  time  when 
the  medical  officers  with  me  (Assistant  Surgeons  McLaren  and  Simpson),  as  well  as  myself,  were  fully  occupied  tiight  and  day 
with  the  wounded,  it  was  found  very  difficult  to  construct  them;  this  is  the  reason  why  I  wish  them  to  be  on  hand  and  ready 
for  any  emergency  that  may  occur.     *     *  " 

In  the  war  with  Mexico,  the  wounded  were  transported  mainly  in  wheeled  vehicles;  but  Colonel 
G.  E.  Cooper  has  informed  me  of  one  instance,  at  least,  in  which  a  two-horse  litter  was  used  for 

sick-transport  for  a 
long  distance.2  This 
litter,  and  those  used 
by  Medical  Director 
Satterlee  are  not  spe- 
cifically described ;  but 
were  probably  similar 
to  that  referred  to  and 
figured  by  Inspector 
General  R.  B.  Marcy,in 
his  instructive  hand- 
book for  travellers  on 
overland  expeditious 
to  the  Pacific  coast.3 
This  is  a  very  ancient 
form  of  litter,often  em- 
ployed prior  to  the  in- 
troduction of  coaches, 
in  the  XVI  century, 
for  conveying  people 

of  consequence,  or  for  the  carriage  of  sick  persons.  I  take  the  liberty  of  copying  his  illustration 
of  the  mode  of  improvising  this  appliance  and  adapting  it  to  the  exigencies  of  frontier  life. 

"Should  a  party  travelling  with  pack-animals,  and  without  ambulances  or  wagons,  have  one  of  its  members  wounded 
or  taken  so  sick  as  to  be  unable  to  walk  or  ride  on  horseback,  a  litter  may  be  constructed  by  taking  two  poles  about  twenty 
feet  in  length,  uniting  them  by  two  sticks  three  feet  long  lashed  across  the  centre  at  six  feet  apart,  and  stretching  a  piece  of 
stout  canvas,  a  blanket,  or  hide  between  them  to  form  the  bed.  Two  steady  horses  or  mules  are  then  selected,  placed  between 
the  poles  in  the  front  and  rear  of  the  litter,  and  the  ends  of  the  poles  made  fast  to  the  sides  of  the  animals  either  by  attachment 
to  the  stirrups  or  to  the  ends  of  straps  secured  over  their  backs.  The  patient  may  then  be  placed  upon  the  litter,  and  is  ready 
for  the  march.  The  elasticity  of  the  long  poles  gives  an  easy  motion  to  the  conveyance  and  makes  this  method  of  locomotion 
much  more  comfortable  than  might  be  expected." — [The  Prairie  Traveler,  p.  150.] 

1  After  the  engagement  at  O-kee-cho-bee,  December  25,  1 8:17,  the  commanding  officer,  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor,  in  his  official  report,  referred 
"with  the  most  pleasing  and  grateful  recollections"  to  "the  attention  and  ability  displayed  by  Surgeon  Satterlee,  Medical  Director,"  and  his  assist- 
ants,  "in  ministering  to  the  wounded,"  as  well  as  to  "their  uniform  kindness  to  them  on  all  occasions." 

2"  1  have  never  seen  a  horse-litter  used  for  transporting  sick  or  wounded,  save  in  one  instance,  which  was  in  the  case  of  an  officer  who  whs  carried 
from  the  city  of  Mexico  to  Vera  Cruz  in  one ;  and  of  this  I  have  but  little  recollection,  except  that  there  were  two  horses — one  in  the  front  of  the  litter 
and  the  other  behind  it, — and  that  the  litter  was  supported  by  shafts  extending  from  the  front  and  rear,  to  which  the  horses  or  mules  were  harnessed. 
The  officer  was,  if  my  memory  fails  me  not,  (Japt.  Walker,  6th  U.  S.  Infantry.  Not  taring  had  anything  to  do  with  the  getting  up  of  the  litter,  and 
having  seen  it  but  once  as  it  passed  me  on  the  road.  I  cannot  give  any  reliable  description  of  its  construction." — Extract  from  a  letter  of  Dr.  OOOPSB 
dated  Point  San  Jose,  California,  January  20,  1877.  , 

•  The  Prairie  Traveler,  a  Handbook  for  Overland  Expeditions,  etc.     By  UANHOLPH  B.  MARCY,  Captain,  U.  S.  Army,  New  York,  1859,  p.  150. 


Flo.  1.— Two  horse  litter.    (After  Marcy.] 


BY    PACK    ANIMALS. 


Dr.  Satterlee's  report  from  Florida  is  the  earliest  mention  I  have  found  of  any  scheme  of 
ambulance  administration  and  equipment  in  the  field  service  of  the  United  States  Army. 

During  the  Florida  campaign, 
Captain  II.  L.  Thistle,  of  the  Louisiana 
volunteers,  devised  a  single-litter  horse 
conveyance,  designed  for  the  transport 
of  wounded  men  through  the  narrowest 
defiles,  or  over  the  most  encumbered 
and  difficult  ground.  In  August,  1836, 
the  inventor  proposed  to  the  Quarter- 
master Department  to  furnish  fifty  sets 
of  this  appliance,  the  litter,  saddle,  and 
other  appurtenances  complete,  at  fifty 
dollars  a  set.  Iu  January,  1837,  this 
contrivance  was  patented.1  The  adja- 
cent wood-cut  is  copied  from  the  draw- 
ing filed  with  the  application  of  the 
patentee.  The  specifications  are  miss- 
ing. Old  officials  at  the  War  Depart- 
ment inform  me  that  they  remember 
seeing,  in  Washington,  horses  equipped  Fl°-  «•- THwrut-Bringie-mtorforhoiwiotmuie. 

with  these  litters  under  inspection;  but  to  what  extent,  if  any,  they  were  issued  to  the  troops,  or 
how  far  they  were  tested  iu  actual  service,  I  have  been  unable  to  ascertain.2 

In  March,  1852,  in  an  expedition  from  Fort  Conrad,  New  Mexico,  against  the  Apache  Indians, 
Assistant  Surgeon  Lyman  IT.  Stone,  U.  S.  A.,  transported,  for  a  considerable  distance,  several 
wounded  men  on  two-horse  litters.  The  question  of  suitable  transport  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
appears  henceforward  to  have  been  a  subject  of  solicitude  in  the  army  medical  department.  In 
1858,  various  models  of  ambulance  wheeled  vehicles  were  constructed,  and  in  October,  1859,  a 
Board  was  convened  to  determine  their  relative  merits.3  The  Board  soon  requested  and  received 
authority  to  examine  the  whole  subject  of  hospital  transport.  Besides  various  recommendations 
regardiug  the  kind  of  vehicles  suitable  for  the  conveyance  of  patients  and  of  supplies,  the  Board 
advised  that  two  horse  litters  should  be  constructed  and  issued  to  the  frontier  posts.  This  recom- 
mendation was  approved,  and  the  specifications  for  the  construction  of  such  litters  were  incorpo- 
rated in  the  Revised  Regulations  for  the  Army.  The  form  of  horse-litter  recommended  appears  to 
have  been  derived  from  experiences  in  Florida  and  Mexico.  It  is  illustrated  in  the  next  cut  (Fig.  3). 
A  supply  of  such  litters  were  distributed  to  the  western  posts.    The  weight  of  the  sample  deposited 

Milt  Subject-matter  Index  of  Patents  for  Inventions,  issued  by  the  United  States  Patent  Office,  Washington,  1874,  Vol.  IU,  p.  1231,  Patent 
Mo.  112. 

'Several  officers  of  distinction  who  served  in  the  Florida  campaign  testify  to  the  vnlue  of  Captain  THIHTLK's  hone-litter.  Major  JOHN  MOUNT- 
KiltT,  U.  8.  Artillery,  wrote  from  New  Orleans  June  18,  18"J6:  "I  have  examined  your  single  hone-litter  and  it  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  say  that,  for 
conveying  wounded  or  took  men  from  the  held,  it  eertainly  must  b©  considered  far  superior  to  the  two-horse  litter  generally  used ;  and  as  it  can  always 
answer  for  a  <  mii,  in,,  ii  j,;,,  V.  s.oldi,  .  I  regard  it  as  all-important  for  our  Indian  campaigns,  and  hoiie  the  War  Department  will  adopt  it  for  our  service.  ' 
flllllW  1'-  N  Ml  111.  in  a  letter  dated  .June  IB,  143C,  states:  "Captain  II.  'I'll  ■  ILK.  who  served  the  last  oumpniirii  in  Florida  in  the  regiment  of  Louisiana 
volunti-crs.  has  ii,\  in  t,d  a  siiddlo  ,,r  litter  for  siek  or  wounded  men,  which,  as  far  as  my  ex|ierience  permits  me  to  say,  is  tho  best  thing  of  the  kind  yet 
proposed.  The  wunt  of  such  a  conveyance  for  the  wounded  emlMtrrasses  the  movement  of  all  kinds  of  trooiis  in  that  country,  where  there  are  no  fortifi- 
cations or  depots  at  which  they  can  be  left  ;  and  the  best  plan  of  a  campaign  may  fail  of  success  from  the  unforeseen  MOnMtettM  of  sick  or  wounded 
without  the  means  ot  tli.ir  tnMpottttka,  and  in  a  warfare  where  they  cannot  be  abandoned.     This  saddle  of  Captain  Tiiimi.r  obviates  the  difficulty, 

for  it  may  be  adjusted  to  u  pack-saddle  tree  and  the  animal  be  packed  when  not  carrying  an\ '     I>r.  c.  A.  I.rzhMiKia;.  writing  at  the  same  place 

and  date,  took  "pleasure  in  eouiinciiiliiii:  tin-  incnious  saddli nstrueted  by  Captain  TlllKll.K."    He  had  "enjoyed  ample  opportunities  of  examining 

various  contrivances  for  similar  purposes  in  use  in  Europe  ;  but  none  so  well  calculated  to  meet  the  exigencies  that  always  accompanied  Indian  warfare 
as  the  one  for  which  Captain  Thistle  claims  originality." 

•The  Board  was  conveni-d  by  B.O.  IM,  vt  ar  Department.  A.  O.  <>..  IHtolier  lw,  1899.  The  order  states  that  models  of  ambulance  conn 
having  been  constructed  according  to  the  miwt  approved  plans,  in  accordance  with  (leneral  Order  No.  1,  A.  O.  0.,  1869,  Surgeons  C.  A.  FlNI.KY.  U.  8. 
8ATTKRI.il,  C.  8.  Tttll'LKR.  J.  M.  CUTLER,  and  Assistant  Surgeon  K.  II.  OOOUMUL  will  assemble  at  Washington.  KoTMsbW  I,  1MB,  to  examine  and 
■elect  the  most  suitable  models,  and  to  make  such  suggestions  as  It  may  deem  practical  and  expedient,  and  also  to  jicrforiii  any  other  duties  counoeted 
with  the  subject  that  should  lie  referred  to  it  by  the  War  I>e|iartineiit.  At  the  fifth  meeting,  Novemlwr  .">,  185!*,  the  Boards  after  disapproving  of  all  the 
model  umbulance  vehicles  presented,  submitted  a  statement  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  .1.  II.  Flovii.  declaring  that:  "A  complete  ambulance  system  is 
very  desirable  and  necessary  for  the  hospital  department  in  tlie  field,  and  tlicroo>re  asking  that  authority  1m-  given  to  the  It,,  ard  to  consider  and  report 
on  an  ambulance  system  which  will  meet  the  exigencies'  of  the  servi.-e.  '  At  its  fifteenth  meeting,  NoviiiiImt  17.  IH.V.i,  tin-  Hoard  decided  that  tr.sips  ia 
the  field  should  tic  furnished  with  ambulance  transportation  at  the  rate  of  forty  men  pm  thousand,  provision  to  be  made  for  twenty  reoiitnlient  patients  and 
twenty  in  the  sitting  posture.  At  the  seventeenth  meeting.  November  19,  1859,  the  Board  passed  a  resolution  for  the  provision  of  two-hone  litten,  which 
was  approved  and  adopted  textually  as  paragraph  1292  of  the  Army  Regulations  fad,  of  lntll ).  as  cited  uls.v.-. 


TRANSPORT   OF   SICK   AND   WOUNDED 


in  the  Army  Medical  Museum  is  eighty-eight  pounds.1  I  cannot  learn  that  these  litters  were  used 
during  the  late  war;  but  in  hostilities  with  Indians  that  have  occurred  since  its  termination,  as 
in  the  Modoc  campaign  of  1873,  they  were  sometimes  carried  into  the  field,  and,  in  the  last  two 
years,  improvised  litters,  constructed  on  the  same  general  plan,  have  been  extensively  employed; 
and  it  is  surprising  that  they  have  been  regarded  in  some  quarters  as  a  novel  device.2 

In  the  Eevised  Regulations  for  the  Army  of  the  United  States  for  1861,  Paragraph  1 298  reads : 
"  Horse-litters  may  be  prepared  and  furnished  to  posts  whence  tuey  may  be  required  for  service  on 
ground  not  admitting  the  employment  of  two-wheeled  carriages;  said  litters  to  be  composed  of  a 

canvas  bed  similar  to 
the  present  stretcher, 
and  of  two  poles  each 
sixteen  feet  long,  to  be 
made  in  sections,  with 
head   and   foot    pieces 

FIG.  3.— United  States  Army  regulation  two-horse-litter.     [From  a  sample  in  the  Army  Medical  Museum.]  Constructed      tO     act     8S 

stretchers  to  keep  the 
poles  apart."  Reports  printed  further  on  fully  explain  the  mode  of  constructing  extemporaneously 
and  of  using  this  form  of  two-horse  litter;3  but  before  introducing  them  it  is  proper,  in  chrono- 
logical order,  to  allude  to  some  other  forms  of  sick-transport  on  pack-animals. 

During  the  progress  of  the  late  war  in  this  country,  a  number  of  persons,  actuated  by  motives 
of  patriotism,  humanity,  or  interest,  devised  and  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  War  Department 
forms  of  conveyance  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  in  localities  impracticable  for  wheeled  vehicles, 
that  were  represented  as  improvements  upon  existing  patterns.  Several  of  these  were  apparently 
suggested  by  the  descriptions  of  Delafield4  and  McClellan*  of  the  horse  litters  and  cacolets  they 
had  observed  in  the  Crimea.  In  October,  1861,  W.  C.  H.  Waddell  forwarded  to  Secretary  Cameron 
a  proposal  to  construct  cacolets  and  litters  for  army  use,  accompanied  by  drawings  (Figs.  7,  8), 
copied  from  Delafield's  report,  and  suggested  some  trivial  modifications.  In  November,  1861,  Mr. 
G.  Kohler  offered  to  furnish  mule-litters  and  chairs  of  patterns  imitated  from  those  used  in  the 
Crimea.    In  July,  1862,  three  hundred  of  these  litters  were  purchased.    In  April,  1862,  Surgeon 

1  The  litter  deposited  in  the  Army  Medical  Museum  is  numbered  2457,  of  Section  I.  (See  Catalogue  of  Surgical  Section,  1866,  p.  625.)  It  weighs 
88  pounds.  The  poles  are  of  ash,  cylindrical,  and  2g  inches  in  diameter  and  16  feet  long,  divided  iuto  sections,  united  by  strung  wrought-iron  strap- 
hinges.  The  leading  sections  are  4J  feet ;  the  middle,  8  feet ;  and  the  rear,  3J  feet  in  length.  The  side  poles  are  kept  apart  by  traverses  of  the  HUM 
calibre,  25  inches  in  length,  with  J-inch  iron  collars,  li  inch  wide.  Each  traverse  is  supplied  with  5  iron  pins  to  which  the  sacking-buttum  is  corded,  and 
is  surmounted  by  a  head-  or  foot-board  of  half-inch  stuff*,  8  inches  high,  and  protected  by  an  iron  rim.  The  collars  of  the  traverses  rest  against  iron 
shoulders,  12  inches  from  either  end  of  the  middle  sections.  The  strong  canvas  sacking-bottom  is  6  feet  by  2  feet  9  inches.  The  side  poles  are  inserted 
through  a  wide  hem.     The  end  sections  are  furnished  with  heavy  straps  and  girths. 

*A  palanquin,  or  two-horse  litter,  as  used  in  the  sixteenth  century,  is  figured  in  a  wood-cut  in  Chaules  KNIGHT'S  Old  England,  compiled  from 

several  pictures  in  BltAUN'e 

Civitates  Orbis  Terrantm, 

1584.    In  Fig.  4  the  por- 
tion of  the  cut  representing 

the    horse-litter  is   copied. 

In  Shifts  and   Erpali>  nil 

of  Camp  Lift,  by  LOUD 

and  ISAINKS  (London, 1871, 

p.  687),  there  is  a  sugges- 
tion of  an  arrangement  that 

"might,    under   favorable 

circumstances,  be  made  availablo  for  the  carriage  of  a  wounded  man,"  with  a  cut  (FIG. 

5)  of  the  appliance  for  suspending  the  patient  either  in  a  semi-recumbent  or  prone  posi- 
tion. A  conveyance  much  resembling  this  is  used,  according  to  Professor  Longmokk,  in  some  parts  of  the  East  Indies, where  it  is  called  a  "  Tuktarewan." 
*  Professor  T.  LoSGMOKE,  in  his  excellent  Treatise  on  the  Transport  of  Sick  and  Wounded  Troops,  London,  1869,  p.  292,  thus  refers  to  this  form 
of  litter:  "  It  is  necessary  to  notice  another  form  of  sick-transport  litter  issued  for  use  in  the  early  part  of  the  late  war  in  the  United  States,  in  wltieh, 
instead  of  two  litters  being  suspended  across  one  horse  or  mole,  one  litter  was  susi>onded  between  two  horses.  This  is  a  very  ancient  form  of  litter  in 
Europe.  Frequent  notices  of  it  occur,  showing  its  common  use  on  occasions  of  state  and  ceremony,  as  well  as  its  employment  for  the  carriage  of  sick 
persons,  in  the  records  of  our  own  country  prior  to  the  introduction  of  coaches.  It  seems  curious  that  its  use  should  have  been  revived  in  modern  times 
in  America."  In  a  note  it  is  added :  "This  form  of  litter  is  referred  to  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Chauleh  the  2d.  A  quotation  introduced  into  the  first  volume 
of  Knight's  London,  pp.  24  and  25,  mentions  that  Major-Oeneral  SKII'TON,  coming  in  a  horse-litter  to  London  when  wounded,  as  he  passed  by  the  brew- 
house  near  St.  John  street,  a  fierce  mastiff"  flew  at  one  of  the  horses  and  held  him  so  fast  that  the  horse  grew  mad  as  a  mad  dog;  the  soldiers  were  so 
amazed  that  none  had  the  wit  to  shoot  the  mastiff*;  but  the  horse-litter,  borne  between  the  two  horses,  tossed  the  Major-General  like  a  dog  in  a  blanket." 
4  liip'irt  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  communicating  the  Report  of  Captain  GEORGE  B.  McCLELLAX  (First  Regiment  United  States  Cavalry),  one 
of  ths  Officers  sent  to  the  Seat  of  War  in  Europe  in  1855  and  185b*.     Washington,  1857. 

'  Report  on  the  Art  of  War  in  Europe  in  1854,  1855,  and  1856,  by  Major  Kichakd  Delafield,  Corps  of  Engineers,  from  his  Notes  and  Observa- 
tions made  as  a  Member  of  a  "  Military  Commission  to  the  Theater  of  War  in  Europe  "  under  the  orders  of  the  Hon.  Jefferson  Davis,  Secretary  of  War 
Washington.  1899, 


FIG.  5. — LOUD  and  IlAISEs's  horse-litter. 


Fig.  4.— Two-horse  litter  of  the  XVI  century. 


BY   PACK   ANIMALS.  7 

Glover  Perin,  U.  S.  A.,  and  Assistant  Surgeon  Benjamin  Howard,  U.  S.  A.,  reported  to  Surgeon- 
General  C.  A.  Fiuley  the  results  of  their  inspection  of  cacolets  and  litters,  devised  by  Mr.  Cbarles 
Proal,  of  Louisville.1  Newspaper  descriptions,  almost  textually  quoted  from  Delafleld's  report, 
with  figures  of  these  appliances,  were  transmitted.  Mr.  Proal  claimed  to  have  improved  upon  the 
French  patterns  by  diminishing  the  weight  and  cost  of 
construction.  Messrs.  Lawrence,  Bradley  &  Pardee,  of 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  in  1861,  applied  for  a  patent 
for  a  cacolet,  of  cumbrous  pattern,  weighing  131  pounds. 
The  chairs  could  not  be  detached  from  the  saddle.  A 
sample,  figured  in  the  adjoining  woodcut  (Fig.  6), 
was  sent,  in  1867,  to  the  Army  Medical  Museum,  and  is 
numbered  824  in  Section  VI.  It  combines  in  an  unusual 
degree  the  undesirable  qualities  of  weight,  weakness, 
and  inconvenience.  On  September  25,  1862,  a  board  of 
officers  of  the  quartermaster  department  examined  caco- 
lets submitted  by  Dr.  Slade  Davis,  and  reported2  that,  s ^^Fa^l* f  Lawrence'  Brttdley& Pardee-  *«•«!«. 
as  compared  with  others  that  had  been  purchased  for 

the  service,  the  only  advantage  of  this  form  of  cacolet  was  its  lightness.  It  was  thought  that 
those  already  on  hand  were  as  light  as  was  consistent  with  the  requisite  degree  of  strength.  Mr. 
E.  P.  Woodcock,3  of  New  York,  in  November,  1863,  patented  a  pack-saddle  with  wooden  outriggers 
from  the  pommel  and  cantle  for  the  suspension  of  litters.  By  securing  litters  to  the  projecting 
parts  by  straps,  and  protecting  the  side  of  the  animal  by  pads,  it  was  designed  to  carry  two  patients 
in  the  recumbent  position.  This  contrivance  was  exhibited  by  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commis- 
sion at  the  Exposition  in  Paris  in  1867,  but  met  with  no  more  approval  abroad  than  at  home.  Mr.  J. 
Jones,4  of  New  York,  in  December,  1862,  proposed  to  the  Surgeon  General  of  the  Army  a  mule- 
litter  for  carrying  two  persons  either  in  a  sitting  or  recumbent  position,  the  litters  being  designed 
to  serve  also  as  efficient  hand-stretchers  or  hospital-beds.  The  "exceeding  lightness,  strength,  and 
simplicity"  of  these  conveyances  were  insisted  on.  The  saddle  with  two  litters,  girths,  bridle,  and 
other  appurtenances  weighed  only  62  pounds,  and  could  probably  be  reduced  to  60  pounds.  In 
September,  1863,  a  board  of  medical  officers  was  convened  in  Washington  to  examine  into  the 
merits  of  an  "adjustable  ambulance  and  pack-saddle,"  submitted  by  Spencer,  Nichols  &  Co. 
Lightness,  strength,  simplicity,  efficiency,  adjustability,  and  cheapness  were  the  merits  claimed  for 
this  contrivance.5  Shortly  afterward,  December  1,  1863,  another  medical  board  assembled  in 
Washington,  to  inspect  and  report  on  a  mule-litter  submitted  by  Messrs.  Pomeroy  &  Co.,  which 

1  Extract  from  a  communication  to  Surgeon- General  C.  A.  FINLKY,  by  Surgeon  G.  PKR1N  and  Attiitant  Surgeon  B.  HOWARD,  dated  Louisville, 
April  2,  1862:  "The  undersigned  would  res|iectfully  state  that  Mr.  Charles  Proal,  of  this  city,  has  submitted  to  our  inspection  a  saddle-ambulance,  which 
has  been  fairly  tested  by  us  in  the  open  field.  Its  chief  excellencies,  compared  with  other  saddle-ambulances,  are  that  it  is  lighter,  is  more  easily 
adjusted,  and  combines  both  the  litter  and  the  chair,  both  of  whicM  can  be  packed  away  in  a  very  small  compass  when  the  pack-saddle  to  which  they 
belong  is  required  fur  other  puposjsa,  The  weight  of  the  entire  ambulance,  with  saddle,  etc.,  is  about  seventy-four  pounds,  that  of  the  French  being 
about  one  hundred  and  forty-two  pounds.  The  mode  of  adjustment  is  such  that  two  litters,  two  chairs,  or  one  chair  and  one  litter,  can  be  used  at  the 
same  time,  at  discretion,  each  of  which  may  be  affixed  to.  or  detached  from,  the  saddle,  while  the  patient  remains  undisturbed.  The  harness  appears  to 
bsj  very  complete,  the  breeching  and  breast-band  preventing  motion  backward  or  forward,  while  the  surcingle,  by  being  attached  to  the  Imttom  of  each 
chair  or  litter,  prevents  either  undue  oscillation,  or  shifting,  which  would  be  otherwise  consequent  upon  any  inequality  in  the  weight  of  the  two  patients 
being  carried.     *     *     The  price  of  the  nmhulance  and  appurtenances  completed  is  about  fifty  dollars.'' 

•A  Board  of  officers,  consisting  of  Colonel  D.  H.  KUCKER,  Quartermaster,  Captain  J.  J.  Dana,  A.  Q.  M„  Captain  E.  E.  CAStr,  A.  Q.  M.,  was 
convened  at  Washington,  September  25,  18(12,  to  "  examine  a  cacolet  to  be  presented  for  inspection  by  Dr.  Si.Al'K  Davis,  and  to  report  its  opinion  of  the 
cacolet  as  comj>arod  with  other  patterns  which  have  been  purchased  for  the  service.''  The  ISoard  reported,  that  "  in  their  opinion  the  cacolet  presented 
by  Dr.  Sl.Al'K  Davis  possessed  an  advantage  over  those  furnished  by  Mr.  K0111.BK  (three  hundred  in  number),  all  of  which  are  now  on  hand,  in  light- 
ness only.  Those  made  by  Mr.  KOHLEK  are  constructed  in  a  strong  and  desirable  manner,  and  are  as  light  as  is  consistent  with  the  requisite  decree  ..t 
strength.  No  call  has  yet  been  made  either  for  those  first  purchased  or  for  those  furnished  by  Mr.  KOHI.RR,  which  cost  121, (XX).  We  would  not  recom- 
mend the  purchase  of  an  additional  number  from  any  source." 

"Compare  LOMftfoU  (Ireatiu  on  the  Trantport  of  Sick  and  Wounded,  etc.,  op.  cit.,  p.  290),  Subject- Matter  Index  of  Patents  for  Invention*, 
Washington,  1874,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  12:12,  and  8ERC  RIKR  (Conferences  Internationale  det  SociiUi  aux  Ilkisti  Militaira  da  Armcci  de  Terre  et  de  Mer  tenuct 
d  Parit  en  18CT.  I.  I,  p.  47). 

«M88.  Records  of  War  Department  for  1852. 

•The  Board,  consisting  of  Surgeon  T.  H.  BACIII,  U.  8.  V.,  Surgeon  C  ALLKX,  U.  8.  V.,  and  Assistant  8urgeon  W.  Moss,  U.  8.  V.,  reported, 
SeptetntMT  16)  I8Ss\  1.  That  tie-  -ae.  .lets  weighed  55$  lbs.,  and  the  saddle-girths  and  other  equipment  :18  lbs.  2.  The  saddle-tree  was  jointed,  so  that  by 
tuniing  screws  it  could  be  adapted  to  animals  of  different  sizes.  3.  As  to  simplicity,  the  saddle  was  provided'with  projecting  crane-like  supports  of  hickory 
covered  with  rawhide,  which  were  eonne.t.-d  either  with  a  flat  framework  of  hickory,  for  packs,  or  with  litters  for  patients.    4.  As  to  strength,  the  saddle 

easily  sustai I  two  barrels  of  timtr  ;  but.  when  two  soldiers,  one  of  them  a  heavy  man,  mounted  on  the  litters,  there  was  "a  slight  yielding;"  but  the 

Board  considered  the  litters  "strong  enough  to  bear  any  load  that  a  horse  or  mule  could  carry."  Finally,  the  Board  considered  the  pattern  submitted  as 
"  comfortable  as  such  a  conveyance  can  be  made." 


8 


TRANSPOKT   OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 


was  found  to  possess  some  good  and  some  objectionable  features.1    In  addition  to  these  essays  in 
invention,  eacolets  and  litters  were  submitted  to  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  that  purported 

to  be  constructed  simply  in  accord- 
ance with  drawings  in  General 
Delafield's  report.3  August  20, 
1861,  Messrs.  Lutz  and  Bridget, 
harness-makers,  furnished  twenty 
such  sets  with  pack-saddles  and 
harness.  These  drawings-,  which 
are  copied,  of  a  reduced  size,  in 
Figs.  7  and  8,  though  prepared 
by  so  distinguished  an  artist  as 
Professor  Weir,  do  not  accurately 
represent  the  mechanical  details 
of  either  the  French  or  British 
Crimean  litters  and  eacolets,  and 
the  ambulance  equipments,  made 

FIG.  7.-Briti8h  Crimean  mule-litter.     [After  WEIR.)     "  in  imitation  of  them,  did  not  pTOV6 

to  be  of  utility.    Early  in  the  war,  however,  probably  as  early  as  May,  1861,  the  Quartermaster's 
Department  had  purchased  a  number  of  eacolets  and  mule-litters  of  the  patterns  used  in  the 

French  army,  and,  in  July,  1861,  engaged  Tiffany 
&  Co.,  ot  New  York,  to  construct  others,  and 
employed  a  French  agent  to  give  instruction  in 
the  use  of  these  eacolets  and  litters,  and  pur- 
chased animals  specially  adapted  for  their  trans- 
port. The  Quartermaster  General  has  remarked 
that  these  horses  and  mules  were  gradually  appro- 
priated as  draft  animals,  and  that  the  litters  and 
eacolets  were,  for  the  most  part,  condemned  as 
unserviceable.  The  French  litters  and  eacolets 
were  wbat  is  known  as  the  old  pattern,  such  as 
the  French  used  iu  Algeria  and  the  Crimea.  They 
are  figured  in  my  surgical  report  in  Circular  6,  S. 
G.  O.,  1865,  at  page  82.  Surgeon-General  Long- 
more  correctly  observes  (op.  cit.,  p.  291),  that  "the 
same  drawings  may  also  be  seen  in  Chapter  XX 
of  M.  Legouest's  TraitS  de  Chirurgie  (PArmee, 
Paris,  1863,  pp.  968-9.  I  ventured  to  copy  the 
drawings  because  they  well  represented  the  iden- 


FlG.  8.— British  Crimean  eacolet.     [After  WEIR.] 


1  The  Board  consisted  of  Medical  Inspector  J.  M.CL'YLKIt,  II.  8.  A.,  Surgeon  O.  A.JUP80X,  U.  8  V.,  anil  Assistant  Surgeon  0.  A.  MrCu.l,,  U.K.  A. 
Tho  report  is  unaccompanied  by  a  description  or  drawing  of  the  conveyance,  but  states  that  it  was  simple  in  construction,  with  unusual  Capacity  for 
providing  for  the  comfortable  carriage  of  two  wounded  men.  Some  modifications  were  suggested,  such  H  Strengthening  the  attachments  of  the  litters 
by  substituting  chains  for  straps ;  of  supplying  means  for  rendering  their  framework  rigid  BO  that  they  Blight  lie  used  temporarily  as  stretchers  ;  of 
arranging  that  they  might  he  detached  from  the  saddle  ;  of  having  rings  and  hooks  for  attaching  necessary  articles  to  tho  pack-saddle,  ami  particularly 
a  vessel  for  water.  The  Board  was  unwilling  to  decisively  approve  of  the  conveyance  until  these  alterations  had  been  effected,  and  a  trial  in  actual 
service  had  been  successfully  made. 

'Upxafielp  (K.)  (Report  on  the  Art  of  War  in  Europe,  4to,  Washington,  1800,  p.  73)  makes  the  following  observations  on  mule-litters  and  eaco- 
lets: "The  requisites  for  an  ambulance  should  be  such  as  to  adapt  it  to  the  battle-field,  among  the  dead,  wounded,  and  living;  in  plowed  fields,  on 
hill-tops,  mountain  slopes,  in  siege  batteries  gad  trenches,  and  a  variety  of  places  inaccessible  to  wheel  carriages,  of  which  woods,  thick  brush,  and  roeky 

grotlnd  are  frequently  the  localities st  obstinately  defended,  and  where  most  soldiers  are  left  for  the  care  of  the  surgeons.     These  difficulties  were  felt 

in  a  great  degree  by  all  the  armies  allied  against  Ilussiu  it.  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  and  the  consequence  was  that  the  English,  French,  and  Sardinian 
amies  adopted  anally,  in  pari  or  altogether,  prick-mutes,  earryiHf  inters  or  chairs.  The  careful  and  surefooted  mule  can  wind  its  way  over  any  road 
or  trail,  among  the  dead,  dying,  and  wounded,  on  any  battle  field,  as  well  as  in  the  trench  and  siege  battery.  It  required  but  suitable  arrangements  to 
support  the  wounded  from  the  mule's  or  horse's  back  to  attain  tho  desired  object,  and  this  the  allied  armies  finally  accomplished  and  put  in  practice. 
The  merit  of  the  plan  renders  it  worthy  our  consideration,  particularly  so  in  our  Uocky  Mountain  and  other  distant  expeditions."  Further  on  be 
remarks:  *  *  "I  witnessed  the  transport  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  sick  and  wounded  French  soldiers,  with  their  arms,  accoutrements,  and  knap- 
sacks, on  the  route  from  the  Tohornaya  to  Kamiosch  Hay.  on  those  litters  and  chairs.   'Fifty-two  of  them  were  on  twenty  six  mules  in  the  horizontal  litters, 

and hundred  and  forty-four  seated  iu  chairs  on  seventy-two  other  mules.     A  driver  was  provided   for  every  two  mules  or  four  wounded  men.     The 

appearai s,  with  such  an  examination  as  I  gave  the  whole  equipment,  were  so  favorable  as  to  recommed  it  for  trial  in  our  service.     To  make  the  system 

better  imilerstoisl,  I  annex  two  additional  figures  (Flea.  7  and  8)  showing  the  animal,  the  equipment,  and  iMisition  of  the  soldier,  for  which  compilation 
and  drawing  I  am  indebted  to  rrwlMaill  Wr.tli." 


BY    PACK    ANIMALS. 


tical  cacolets  and  litters  issued  in  our  army,  and  through  an  inadvertence  which  must  bo  conceded 
to  be  unusual  in  me,  I  neglected  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  my  honored  friend  and  master. 
I  trust  this  explanation  will  convince  him  and  every  one  tbat  I 
had  no  surreptitious  design  in  using  the  cuts.  In  the  mule- 
litters  and  cacolets  now  issued  in  the  French  army,  there  are 
improvements  providing  for  making  the  sections  of  the  litter 
rigid,  so  that  it  can  be  used  temporarily  as  a  hand-stretcher, 
for  reduction  in  weight,  and  for  greater  compactness  in  packing.1 
The  mule-chairs  and  litters  now  issued  by  the  British  Royal 
Carriage  Department  are  lighter  and  more  convenient  than 
those  used  in  the  Crimea.  I  take  the  liberty  of  copying  Sur- 
geon-General Longmore's  drawings  of  the  cacolet  (Fig.  9)  and 
litter  (Fig.  10)  now  employed  in  the  British  service.2  The  only 
reference  I  And  of  the  actual  employment  in  battle,  during  the 
late  War  in  this  country,  of  horse-litters  or  cacolets,  is  made 
by  Professor  F.  H.  Hamilton.3  He  mentions  that,  at  the  battle 
of  Fair  Oaks,  May  31,  1862,  when  he  was  medical  director  of      fig.  9.— British  muie-chair  or  cacoiet,  open  for  use 

"  »  <  and  packed  for  traveling.     [After  Longmoke.) 

the  Fourth  Army  Corps,  eight  pack-saddles,  provided  with  a 

litter  on  one  side  and  a  cacolet  on  the  other,  were  provided  as  a  part  of  the  ambulance  outfit  of 
that  corps,  and  were  used  only  on  the  first  day  ot  the  battle,  proving  utterly  unserviceable.  Notes 
are  fouud  in  the  War  Department  records  of  the 
transmission,  August  26,  1861,  of  twelve  of  the 
mule-litters  and  cacolets  made  by  Tiffany  &  Co., 
to  the  army  in  the  Shenandoah  valley,  com- 
manded by  General  Banks.  A  supply  of  litters 
and  cacolets  was  provided  for  the  advance  of  the 
Army  of  tho  Potomac  from  Yorktown  toward 
Richmond  in  May,  1862.  There  were  forty,  at 
least,  in  store  at  White  House,4  but  there  were 
no  trained  animals  to  bear  them.  Moreover,  the 
subordinate  quartermasters  and  medical  officers 
appear  generally  to  have  regarded  the  experi- 
ment with  little  favor.  Medical  Director  Tripler, 
who,  in  1859,  in  a  report  on  the  needs  of  the 
ambulance  service,  had  urged  the  importance  of 
supplying  horselitters  to  troops  serving  in  re- 
gions impracticable  for  wheeled  carriages,  made 
several  efforts  to  secure  suitable  equipment  and 
proper  animals5  for  this  purpose,  but  without  much  success.  His  successor,  also,  Medical  Director 
Letterman,  entertained  similar  views,  in  correspondence  with  the  opinions  of  European  authorities; 
and  persevering,  though  ill  arranged,  efforts  were  made  to  give  the  system  a  fair  trial.    In  July,  1862, 


FIG.  10. — British  army  mule-litter  attached  to  its  pack-saddle. 

LONGMOBE.l 


[After 


1  M.  Bouinx  states  (Systime  d'ambulancei  de.t  armfex  fran^aitt  el  Anglaise,  1855,  p.  35)  that  the  cacolet  weighed  something  over  19  kilogrammes 
the  ]>jiir.  The  pair  in  the  Army  Medical  Museum  weighs  40  peunds.  Including  the  pack-saddle,  Professor  Longmokk  says  a  pair  weighed  in  the 
Crimea  was  found  to  be  89  pounds  and  12  ounces. 

*The  weight  of  a  pair  of  English  litters  used  in  tho  Crimea  was  138  pounds  12  ounces,  without  the  pack-saddle.  The  present  pattern  weighs  84 
pounds,  without  bedding  or  pack  saddle.     With  the  paillasses  and  pack-saddle  the  weight  is  167  pounds. 

»  Hamilton  (V.  H.)  (A  Treatise  on  Military  Surgery  and  Hygiene,  1865,  p.  MB) :  "Just  before  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks,  eight  were  sent  to  us  for 
the  use  of  the  4th  Corps.  They  were  only  employed,  however,  on  the  first  day  of  the  battle.  The  horses  were  found  to  be  impatient  and  restless  under 
them,  and  six  of  the  eight  were  soon  broken  and  rendered  unfit  for  use.  Mules  are  better  than  horses  for  this  purpose  ;  they  are  not  so  high,  and  are  less 
restive  under  the  pressure  of  heavy  weights  upon  their  backs ;  but  even  mules  require  to  be  trained  especially  to  this  kind  of  service,  before  they  can  be 
rendered  useful  or  safe.'' 

4  From  a  telegraphic  order  of  May  27,  1862,  recorded  on  the  files  of  the  War  Department,  and  addressed  from  the  Headquarters  of  the  Army  of 
tho  Potomac,  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  .1.  A.  IlAKPIK  to  Colonel  8.  VAX  VLIKT,  Q.  M.t  at  White  House,  on  the  Pamunkey,  it  appears  that  a  certain  number 
of  cacolets  were  at  that  depot  prior  to  the  battle  of  Fair  OakB.  The  dispatch  reads:  "The  commanding  General  directs  that  you  furnish  the  forty 
cacolets  ut  the  White  Mouse,  belonging  to  the  Medical  Department,  with  horses,  and  report  to  the  Medical  Director  here  the  moment  they  are  ready." 
Doubtless  the  eight  cacolets  sent  to  the  Fourth  Corps  were  supplied  trotn  this  source. 

•March  !:<.  1818,  on  receiving  the  papers  regarding  Mr.  Kohler's  request  for  an  examination  of  his  litters  and  cacolets,  Medical  Director  TiUPLER 
makes  the  endorsement  that:  "there  are  sufficient  horse-litters  for  this  army  in  the  possession  of  the  Quartermaster's  Department.  All  we  want  now  is 
horses  or  mules  pro|w-rly  traire-d  to  carry  them." 

2 


10 


TRANSPORT   OF   SICK    AND    WOUNDED 


PIO.  11. — French  litiere  folded.     [After  LEGOUE6T.] 


FIG.  12. — French  cacolet  unfolded.     [After 
LEUOL'EST.l 


the  Surgeon  General  requested  the  Quartermaster's  Department  to  provide  three  hundred  litters, 
and  this  number  was  purchased  of  Mr.  G.  Kohler.1*  Prior  to  the  battle  of  Antietam,  Medical 
Director  Lettermau  asked  for  a  supply  of  mules  equipped  with  cacolets  and  litters.  The  Quarter- 
master's Department  had  an  ample  supply  of  the  French  patterns, 

which  were  beyond  all  ques- 
tion the  best  that  had  been 
devised  at  that  time.  But 
there  were  no  trained  ani- 
mals to  bear  them,  and  few, 
if  any,  available  skilled  pack- 
ers. September  1, 1862,  the 
Surgeon  General  requested 
that  a  hundred  mule-litters 
should  be  sent  to  Medical 
Inspector  R.  H.  Coolidge. 
A  few  weeks  after  the  battle 
of  Antietam  a  hundred  and 
fifty  mules  were  sent  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  for 
ambulance  service,  but  they 
were  so  unruly  that  it  was 
thought  unwise  to  pack  them  with  their  equipment,  and  the  litters  and  cacolets  were  sent  along 
in  wagons,  and,  as  far  as  can  be  learned,  never  found  their  way  to  the  backs  of  the  mules.2  Little 
could  be  anticipated  from  such  essays.  In  November,  1802,  the  Surgeon  General  made  another 
requisition  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  mules  with  drivers,  with  a  view  of  having  them  drilled  with 
cacolets  in  the  field,  by  Dr.  Slade  Davis;  but  this,  like  previous  experiments  in  this  direction, 
proved  abortive;  and  the  ambulance  material  for  trausport  by  pack-animals,  accumulated  at  no 
inconsiderable  cost,  was  never  really  tested  in  the  field;'  There  seems  to  have  been  a  widespread 
distrust  of  the  system  on  the  part  of  officers  of  the  Quartermaster's  and  the  Medical  Departments. 

1  June  17,  1863,  Colonel  RucKER  advises  the  Quartermaster  General  that  he  has  advertised  for  proposals  for  mule-litters,  and  that  the  only  pro- 
posal received  is  from  Mr.  G.  Kohlek,  and  that  the  litter  he  proposes  to  furnish  seems  to  be  very  high-priced;  "it  is  intricate  and  cumbersome  in 
construction,  and,  in  my  opinion,  inferior  to  those  now  in  Captain  Dana's  store-house''  [the  French  cacolet  and  litiere].  July  36,  1863,  Surgeon-General 
II  AM  MOM)  states,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  Quartermaster  (ieneral  concurring  in  Colonel  MUCKER'S  opinion:  *  *  "The  litter  presented  by  Mr.  KOHLER 
lias  been  examined  by  myself  and  a  board  of  officers,  who  agree  that  it  possesses  sufficient  merit  to  entitle  it  to  trial  in  the  field.  I  therefore  request 
that  three  hundred  of  the  mule-litters  presented  by  Mr.  KOill.EK  be  purchased  for  the  use  of  the  army."  Quartermaster  General  Meigs  replies,  July 
29,  1862,  that  *  *  "inasmuch  its  the  Surgeon  General  adopts  and  requests  that  these  litters  be  constructed,  though  in  the  opinion  of  the  Quarter- 
master's Department  they  are  not  as  good  as  those  already  on  hand,  they  will  be  contracted  for  under  the  proposal  of  Mr.  KoiiLEtt.  The  price  bid  is 
understood,  as  in  other  cases,  to  include  the  whole  set,  namely,  head-stall,  harness,  saddle,  and  two  litters  for  each  mule."  As  early  as  December  9, 
1861,  this  pattern  of  mule-litter  had  been  reported  on  by  a  board  convened  by  General  McCi.eli.an,  consisting  of  Col.  D.  II.  IluCKHIi,  Surgeon  C.  H. 
I,AU1»,  and  Surgeon  J.  K.  SMITH,  it  is  presumed  unfavorably,  as  further  action  was  not  had  at  the  time. 

2  In  October,  1862,  the  Surgeon  General  again  made  requisition  on  (he  Quartermaster's  Department  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  mules  provided 
with  mule-litters,  to  be  sent  to  Dr.  Jonathan  Lettkrman,  Medical  Hi  rector  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  In  reference  to  delay  in  compliance  with  this 
requisition,  Captain  J.  J.  Dana,  A.Q.  M.,  reported,  October  17,  1862,  as  follows:  "The  order  was  given  by  me,  October  :)d,  immediately  on  its  receipt,  for 
one  hundred  and  fifty  mules  and  litters  to  be  made  ready  for  sen-ice.  At  that  time  we  had  no  mules  sufficiently  well  broken  for  the  purpose.  I  directed 
fifty  of  the  best  to  lie  taken  from  the  ambulance  train,  the  litters  to  be  fitted  upon  them,  and  the  mules  drilled  daily  until  they  were  fit  to  go  into  the  field. 
On  the  9th  of  October,  fifty  mules  with  litters  upon  them  were  started  for  Dr.  Lkttek.man.  Much  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  the  mules 
forward,  as  they  were,  many  of  them,  inclined  to  lie  down  and  were  otherwise  unruly.  Among  a  lot  of  mules  received  on  the  10th  instant,  we  found 
one  hundred  which  were  to  some  extent  suitable  for  the  puriiose,  and  were  sent  forward  on  the  11th  instant,  the  litters  being  gent  by  wagons  in  order  t« 
expedite  the  matter.''  October  3,  lr<(i2,  Quartermaster-General  MKKis,  in  transmitting  this  report  to  Surgeon-General  HAMMOND,  stated:  "I  desire 
respectfully  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  mentioned  in  the  report :  that  there  are  a  large  number  of  cacolets  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Government 
which  appear  to  have  been  overlooked  by  the  officers  of  your  department,  and  to  suggest  the  expediency  of  directing  their  availing  themselves  of  them 
as  occasion  may  arise.  General  McCl.El.LAN  issued  orders,  a  year  ago,  for  drill  and  practice  of  ambulance  men,  including,  as  I  understand,  the  use  of 
the  mule-litters,  of  which,  of  French  and  American  manufacture,  there  were  then  a  considerable  number  provided  by  the  Quartermaster's  Department. 
Those  lately  purchased  from  Mr.  KOHI.ER,  on  the  requisition  of  the  Surgeon  General,  cost  §21,000,  and  are  still  in  store." 

1 "  From  the  papers  laid  before  the  Quartermaster  General  to-day,  there  appears  an  expenditure  for  purchnse  of  cacolets  and  litters  in  1861  and 
1862  for  the  Army,  partly  upon  requisions  from  the  Surgeon  General,  partly  from  orders  originating  in  this  office,  of  over  §30,000.  To  this,  if  the  cost  of 
animals  and  use  of  men,  of  forage,  &c,  supplied  by  this  Department  for  the  experiment  of  introducing  these  litters  and  cacolets,  it  would  be  found  that 
not  less  than  §100,000,  and  probably  more  has  been  expended  in  an  experiment  which  was.  so  far  as  information  in  this  office  goes,  entirely  unsuccessful. 
There  never  was,  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Quartermaster  General,  a  requisition  from  any  military  commander.  All  the  requisitions  came  from  the  Surgeon 
General's  office.     It  is  not  known  to  this  office  that  these  mule-litters  ever  were  used  in  service,  and  the  Quartermaster  General  believes  that  no  wounded 

man  was  ever  placed  upon  one  of  them.     While  the  wheeled  nnibulat s  and  hund-litters  provided  for  the  hospital  equipments  were  in  constant  and  useful 

use,  the  litters  burdened  the  trains,  and  the  mules  were  by  the  ordinary  accidents  of  service  taken  for  the  ambulances  and  iragOM.  lie  believes  that  no 
better  eaeolet  or  nnile-litter  will  be  constructed  than  the  French  cacolet  and  litter,  ordered  at  the  begiimisg  of  the  rebellMin  ;  and  these,  which  though  In 
his  judgment  inferior,  were,  at  a  later  period,  bought  at  the  argent  requisition  of  the  then  Surgeon  General.  He  is,  therefore,  of  opinion  that  any  further 
expenditure  by  this  Department  in  this  line  of  experiment  will  be  a  waste  of  public  money,  and  he  will  not,  therefore,  unless  under  order  of  higher 
authority,  expend  money  or  make  reports  upon  any  models  thus  far  submitted  to  him."— Mem.  of  QUARTERMASTER  GENERAL,  December  23,  1868. 


BY   PACK   ANIMALS. 


11 


Fig.  13.— French  litiere  unfolded.    [After  UMOI  i>i.l 


In  a  letter  of  March  20,  1863,  Surgeon  George  Suckley,  U.  S.  V.,  Medical  Director  of  the 
Eleventh  Corps,  wrote  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  near  Fredericksburg,  to  Surgeon  J.  H. 
Brinton,  U.  S.  V.,  at  Washington : 


"There  arc  no  caeolets  in  tliis  Corps,  Mini  I 
want  none.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds'  weight 
is  too  modi  for  a  mule's  hack  over  rough  ground, 
eneomberad  by  bushes,  stones,  lou's,  and  ditelies. 
Among    trees,    caeolets    will    not    answer    at    all; 

although  need  in  European  services  and  in  Algeria, 

they  liave  there  hcen  employed  under  sonic  t'avor- 
able  circumstances,  either  on  plains  or  on  open 
rolling  country.  Here  they  would  prove.  I  sin- 
cerely helicvc.  only  a  trouhlesome  and  barbarous 
encumbrance,  cruel  alike  to  the  wounded  and  the 
pack-animals." 

The  French  patterns,  represented 
in  Figures  11, 12,  and  13,  copied  from  M.  Legouest's  work,  were,  like  the  rest,  considered  unsuited 
to  the  requirements  of  field  service  in  this  country.  Scarcely  a  word  in  favor  of  them  is  to  be 
found  in  any  reports  of  the  medical  directors'  or  held  surgeons. 

Surgeon  John  Moore,  U.  S.  A.,  who  long  served  as  Medical  Director  in  the  Western  armies,  writes  from  San  Antonio, 
January  24,  1877,  in  regard  to  the  use  of  horse-litters  and  caeolets :  "  We  had  a  few  of  these  litters  with  the  armies  in  the  West, 
hut  they  were  very  generally  left  in  the  depots  of  supply.  I  never  knew  of  a  single  wounded  man  being  carried  on  a  horse-litter ; 
for  a  man  wounded  in  his  arm  or  anywhere  above  the  waist,  was  not  so  badly  hurt  as  to  prevent  his  riding  a  gentle  horse,  they 
are  not  needed;  and  for  one  so  badly  injured  that  he  is  unable  to  sit  without  being  propped  or  supported,  they  are  so  uncomfortable 
as  soon  to  become  intolerable,  and  in  all  such  cases  where  atnhulaiice  wagons  or  wheeled  vehicles  could  not  be  bad,  band-litters 
were  improvised  from  slender  poles  cut  in  the  woods  and  canvas  or  blankets  fastened  on  them,  upon  which  the  wounded  man 
was  laid,  and  the  litter  either  carried  by  men  or  by  passing  the  ends  of  the  poles  through  a  kind  of  stirrup  on  each  side  of  a 
horse  or  mule,  an  animal  being  at  each  end  and  the  wounded  man  hetween  them.  In  civilized  warfare  it  rarely  happens  that 
men  are  wounded  beyond  the  reach  of  our  two-horse  ambulance  wagons,  that  horse-litters,  at  least  such  as  I  have  seen,  might 
well  he  excluded  from  the  hospital  equipment.  There  only  remains,  therefore,  our  Indian  campaigns,  in  which  the  horse-litter 
may  be  utilized,  lint,  unfortunately,  the  country  where  this  kind  of  warfare  takes  place  will  usually  be  found  so  rocky  anil 
cut  up  by  deep  ravines  as  to  make  it  impracticable  to  carry  a  badly  wounded  man  in  one  of  these  horse-litters.  Then  the  hand 
and  horse-litter  just  referred  to  must  be  used,  and  nothing  is  better  adapted  to  its  construction  than  the  Indian  lodge-poles. 
There  is  usually  little  trouble  in  putting  it  together.  Should  it  be  necessary  to  carry  a  man  for  a  long  distance,  the  litter 
would  be  greatly  improved  by  stretching  over  it,  instead  of  canvas  or  blanket,  the  fresh  bide  of  an  ox,  mule,  or  horse.  If  any 
of  our  litters  have  been  found  serviceable  during  the  past  year  in  the  expeditions  against  the  Sioux,  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
which  ;  and  also  to  learn  the  opinion  of  the  men  transported  for  two  or  three  days  in  the  Yellowstone  region.  The  condition 
of  the  animal  on  which  he  was  carried  at  the  end  of  two  or  three  days  would  not  he  without  interest." 

The  absolute  failure  of  the  attempt  to  introduce,  in  our  army,  a  system  of  sick-transport  by 
caeolets  and  double  litters2  seems  to  have  been  due  to  defects,  possibly  insurmountable,  in  adiuiu- 

1  Surgeon  G.  PEKIX,  Medical  Director  of  ttie  Army  of  the  Cumlierlund.  in  a  Idler  dated  Port  Leavenworth,  January  BO,  1S^7.  states  :  "In  Bo  fur  as 
I  can  now  remember,  this  method  of  transporting  sick  or  wounded  was  never  used  ill  any  command  wiltl  which  1  served,  'lie-  liuud-litter  was  all  that 
was  necessary  to  convey  the  wounded  to  points  accessible  by  the  ambulance  trains.  The  only  service  where  the  caeolet  or  horse-litter  would  be  found 
necessary,  in  my  opinion,  is  that  of  scouting,  where  wagon  transportation  cannot  lie  taken.  I  should  prefer,  for  our  Indian  scouting,  to  take  pieces  ol 
canvas  about  seven  feet  long  by  three  feet  wide,  with  eyelets  six  inches  apart  worked  around  1  he  edges.     Those  may  be  lashed  over  poles  procured  when 

needed.    The  poles  can  1m-  fastened  at  one  end  to  a  pack-saddle  and  tl ther  end  allowed  to  drag  upon  the  ground.    This  is  the  way  the  Indians 

ttaaspeti  their  sick  and  wounded,  and  ordinarily  answers  well.      In  rough,  stony  grounds  1  have  used  litters  mounted  upon  two  pack  mules  or  horses,  OBS 

bnfasj  in  front  and  one  in  roar,  with  a  man  to  lend  each  animal."     Dr.  John  II.  Ban  l"V  formerly  Surg i  I'.  S.  V..  and  Medical  Director  of  the  Middle 

Military  Department,  writes.  January  1:1,  1H77:  'All  that  I  can  remember  ,,f  the  horse  and  mule  letters  is  the  fact  that  a  anmhoT  of  samples  were 
iBSfOetad  at  the  Surgeon  QeaaCafS  OflnSS  by  a  board  appointed  for  the  purpose,  anil  my  impression  is  that  a  limited  number  of  the  foreign  models  were 
I  to  the  brigade  of  tegular  cavalry  then  stationed  near  Washington.  1  subsequently  enquired  of  many  medical  oftieers  how  this  mixlo  of  transport" 
Sties  answered;  and.  t  »  the  best  of  my  recollection,  it  was  a! way-  BSDOS  ■  sp  .ken  of  as  unsatisfactory ,  and  unsuited  to  the   American  soldier.     I 

imagine  it  will  be  found  that  very  little,  if  any,  real  uso  was  made  of  those  horse-litters.  As  you  know,  1  was  present  at  many  battle  fields,  ami  witnessed 
the  employment  of  almost  every  sort  of  tnmsjH.rtation  ;  but  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  never  saw  one  of  these  litters  used."  tieneral  J.  .VI.  Cl.  Yl.EK,  who, 
as  Medical  Inopestuf  1  icneral,  had  great  opportunities  for  observation,  writes  from  the  headquarters  Of  the  Military  Division  of  the  Atlantic,  Juuuary  1(1, 
1877,  that  with  the  exception  of  the  inspection  nt  Carver  Hospital  [see  note  I  ,  p.  10,  ""t>  \.  in  Deeem!  icr,  1863,  of  the  mule  litter  submitted  by  Pomeroy  &. 

■  saw  nothing  of  this  iii-mIc  of  transput  during  the  war.  Colonel  II.  B.  I'ool'KK.  Assistant  Mislieal  Purveyor,  I'.  S.  A.,  who  was  long  at  the  head 
of  the  misiieal  administration  of  the  principal  Western  armies,  writes.  January  20,  1877,  that:  "I  have  never  seen  a  horse-litter  used  for  trans|»>rting 
sick  or  wound  he  instance.        [The  incident  referred  to.  w  Inch  occurred  in  the  Mexican  War,  is  noted  ut  page  6,  supra. 1     Surgeon  JOKKfft  It. 

I'.Kowv  I  .  S.  A.,  who  was  long  intimately  ossociuted  with  the  administration  of  the  medical  service  of  the  Western  armies,  writes,  January  19,  1877: 
"Concerning  the  us.-  of  i,  use  litters  or  caeolets  in  the  Western  Department,  "  "  I  have  to  state  that  I  can  recall  no  instances  of  my  personal  eX|N-rienco 
at  all  of  the  use  of  such  transportation  for  wounded,  for  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  have  been  entirely  unprovided  with  anything  of  the  kind  under  circum- 
stances anil  at  times  when  they  eoeld  have  been  used." 

'  Marsha!  LH01  M  *  aim  -  A  iiNAbl),  in  his  Rapport  tur  la  reorganization  da  Equipaget  JKUtofrst,  Paris,  l'evricr,  1853,  says:  "The  use  of  the 
mule  with  a  eBBOcSt  or  litter  was  first  adopted  in  Algeria,  lly  means  of  these  ingenious  equipages,  hundreds  of  wounded,  amputated,  and  sick  soldiers 
have  been  transported  in  safety  to  our  bass  of  operations." 


12  TRANSPORT    OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 

istration,  and  not  to  demerits  of  the  system.  Without  efficient  animals  and  packers  it  was  vain  to 
anticipate  useful  results  from  the  best-contrived  appliances.  Used  with  the  greatest  advantage  in 
Algeria1  and  in  the  Crimea,  the  French  cacolets  and  litters  were  adopted  by  the  British  army  med- 
ical department  with  satisfactory  results.  In  the  Italian  war  of  1859,  they  were  found  service- 
able in  each  of  the  different  armies  engaged.  They  were  used,  with  what  results  I  have  not 
ascertained,  in  the  armies  of  Spaiu  and  Portugal.  The  Italian  Medical  Inspector  General,  Dr. 
Cortese,  reported  most  favorably  of  their  utility  in  the  rocky  defiles  and  narrow  wooded  paths  of 
the  Tyrol  (Fischer).  Seut  to  India  duriug  the  Sepoy  rebellion,  and  to  New  Zealand  during  the 
Maori  war,  they  proved  altogether  useless  from  lack  of  trained  animals  to  bear  them  (Longmore). 
In  the  Franco-Austrian  invasion  of  Mexico,  the  French  contingent  of  the  expeditionary  army, 
carrying  with  them  their  train  of  pack-mules,  used  this  mode  of  transport  advantageously;  whereas 
the  Austrian  contingent,  relying  on  animals  picked  up  in  the  country,  derived  little  benefit  from  it.2 
On  the  whole,  it  may  be  asserted  that  the  evidence  of  the  value  and  importance  of  mule-litters  and 
cacolets,  as  a  part  of  the  ambulance  equipment,  is  conclusive.  They  can  be  packed,  compactly  and 
easily  carried  on  the  march— the  mules  conveying  supplies  or  doing  other  field  service  when  not 

1  Marshal  Bugeaud,  who  served  with  great  credit  in  his  campaigns  in  the  Spanish  peninsula,  from  1810  to  1814,  and  afterward  commanded  in 
Algeria,  concluding  in  1837  the  treaty  of  Tafna  with  Abd-el-Kader,  when  recalled,  in  1847,  to  command  the  army  of  Paris,  was  the  warm  advocate  of 
supplying  the  army  with  means  of  transport  by  pack-animals,  regarding  the  mule-litters  and  cacolets  used  in  Africa  as  scarcely  susceptible  of  improve- 
ment. He  contrasted  the  efficiency  of  this  mode  of  transport  with  what  he  had  observed  in  Spain,  where,  for  the  want  of  transport  suited  to  the  field  of 
operations,  whole  divisions  had  sometimes  to  abandon  their  wounded  on  the  field.  Such  neglect,  he  argued,  must  produce  a  most  depressing  effect  upon 
the  troops.  Marshal  BUGKAUD  recommended  that  the  equipment  fur  the  transport  of  wounded  of  all  the  cavalry  and  infantry  divisions  of  the  French 
army  should  be  exactly  like  that  of  the  army  of  Africa,  and  that  wheeled  ambulance-wagons  should  be  attached  only  to  the  reserves.  Medical  Inspector 
General  Hall  considered  the  merits  of  the  French  cacolets  and  litteres, — their  general  applicability  to  the  circumstances  of  warfare, — their  admitting  of  the 
removal  of  sick  and  wounded  from  every  description  of  ground  and  over  every  kind  of  ground  where  mules  and  horses  can  travel, — and  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  removal  could  be  effected  over  roads  where  wheeled  carriages  could  not  travel  (Parliamentary  Report  upon  Hospitals  of  the  British  Army 
in  the  Crimea,  London,  1855).  Colonel  Blank,  Assistant  Adjutant  General  for  Lord  Raglan,  regarded  "the  cacolets  and  litieres  now  in  the  French 
service  as  by  far  the  most  perfect  system  which  has  yet  been  devised  for  the  transport  of  sick  and  wounded  with  an  army  in  the  field."'  See  Longmore, 
op.  «'(.,  p.  274. 

2  Dr.  J.  NeudObfer,  the  chief  medical  officer  of  the  Austrian  expeditionary  force  in  Mexico,  in  1864-3,  thus  relates  (Handbuch  der  Kriegschi- 
rurgie,  Leipzig,  1807,  p.  341)  his  experience  of  transport  by  mule-litters  and  cacolets:  "Those  who  know  these  modes  of  transport  only  from  descriptions 
and  delineations,  without  personal  experience,  will  be  much  prepossessed  in  their  favor,  as  they  appear  simple,  easy  of  conveyance,  and  practicable  on 
every  ground.  We  will  show,  however,  that  the  system  is  not  quite  so  simple  as  it  appears.  We  had  cacolets  made  of  the  French  pattern,  in  the  corps 
workshop  at  Puebla.  The  weight  was  70  pounds,  and  could  not,  without  risk  to  solidity  and  utility,  be  reduced  to  less  than  60  pounds.  Considering 
further  the  weight  of  the  wounded  man  (with  his  full  equipment,  which  is  not  allowed  to  be  abandoned)  as  amounting  to  150  pounds,  and  finally  estima- 
ting the  equipment  of  the  mule  leader,  other  traps  of  the  wounded  man,  their  victuals,  and  perhaps  a  little  forage  for  the  mule,  as  weighing  30  pounds,  we 
have  a  round  total  of  400  pounds,  to  be  transported  by  the  mule.  Four  hundred  pounds  is  a  burden  that  cannot  be  borne  continuously  on  the  back  of  a 
horse.  A  horse  may  draw  twice  that  amount,  but  cannot  carry  such  a  load.  Mules,  instead  of  horses,  are  selected  for  the  transport  of  wounded  by 
cacolets,  because,  as  the  cavalry  say,  mules  have  stronger  backs  than  horses ;  besides,  mules  have  the  advantage  of  getting  along  better  and  more  safely 
than  horses  in  the  mountains,  although  the  Mexican  horse  (and  probably  every  horse  raised  in  the  mountains)  is  not  in  any  way  inferior  to  the  mule  when 
it  is  necessary  to  surmount  difficult  passways.  But  even  for  the  buck  of  a  mule  400  pounds  is  a  burden  that  can  only  be  carried  by  the  largest  and 
strongest  mule.  For  this  reason,  the  French  in  Mexico  brought  with  them  droves  of  large  and  strong  mules.  Such  an  outfit  is  directly  very  costly,  and 
indirectly  yet  more  expensive  from  the  outlay  fur  the  care  and  feed  of  animals.  But  there  was  no  alternative;  for  a  sufficient  number  of  strong  capable 
mules  could  seldom  be  obtained  in  that  country  by  requisition.  The  Austrian  corps  using  the  cacolets  only  as  an  auxiliary  means  for  the  transport  of 
wounded,  employed  such  mules  as  could  be  procured  through  requisition  at  the  time  and  place,  and  it  sometimes  happened  that  these  animals,  although 
the  largest  and  strongest  of  those  on  hand,  would  break  down  under  their  load,  obliging  the  wounded  to  remain  for  hours  lying  on  the  roadway,  until  the 
mule  could  recover  itself,  or  other  meaus  of  transportation  could  be  improvised.  In  accidents  of  this  kind,  we  were  quite  satisfied  if  the  wounded  man  did 
not  sustain  injury  at  the  breaking  down  of  the  animal.  Even  the  largest  and  strongest  mules  could  nut  always  be  made  immediately  serviceable.  In 
Mexico  these  animals  live,  as  the  horses,  in  wild  droves  on  the  fields.  They  are  caught  when  wanted  for  sale,  and  then  are  unfit  for  service  as  pack- 
animals.  They  break  and  destroy  everything  that  is  packed  on  them.  Several  months  elapse  until  they  are  tamed  and  can  be  employed  to  carry,  and 
a  mule,  strong  and  tame  as  it  must  be  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  cacolets,  costs  at  least  200  pesos  (silver  ounce).  The  cacolets  as  well  as  the  litters  have, 
besides  the  disadvantage  that  they  afford  to  the  sick  or  wounded  man,  little  or  no  protection  against  the  influences  of  the  climate  ;  yet  such  protection  is 
as  much  needed  as  in  Europe  or  Africa,  for  the  sick  man  must  be  guarded  against  the  tropical  sun  as  well  as  against  the  tropical  rain.  But  these  do  not 
exhaust  the  inconveniences  of  this  means  of  transport.  I  have  tried  riding  on  a  cncolet,  and  found  that  it  depends  on  the  gait  and  form  of  the  animal  as 
to  what  degree  of  discomfort  the  patient  experiences.  Some  mules  have  such  an  unpleasant  gait  that  the  patient,  either  sitting  or  lying,  feels  as  wretchedly 
as  if  subjected  to  the  rolling  motions  of  a  small  screw-steamer.  Even  with  a  well-gaited  animal,  the  constant  swinging  motion  is  unpleasant.  The  upper 
part  of  the  body  of  a  man  seated  in  a  cacolet  swings  to  and  fro  like  a  pendulum,  pivoting  at  the  level  of  the  knee  joints.  Besides,  the  sitting  posture, 
with  the  patient  strapped  to  his  seat,  can  only  be  borne  by  the  slightly  sick  or  wounded,  and  even  these  will  be  fatigued  by  the  forced  position  and 
swinging  motion  in  a  transport  of  this  kind.  Finally,  the  cacolets  and  litters  require  so  much  room,  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  move  them  through 
narrow  mountain  passes,  such  as  our  wounded  had  to  traverse  repeatedly  in  the  Sierra  del  Norte,  in  Mexico.  In  other  cases,  mountain  roads  passing  a 
projecting  rock  made  such  abrupt  curves  that  the  mule  burdened  with  two  wounded  men  was  obliged  to  keep  close  to  the  margin  of  the  road,  where  one 
of  the  patients  would  be  actually  suspended  over  a  yawning  abyss,  in  constant  danger  of  life.  Moreover,  from  the  method  of  packing,  the  centre  ot 
gravity  is  placed  so  high  that,  in  the  steep  and  abrupt  descents  to  be  passed,  even  the  safe-going  mule  lost  its  balance.  A  mule  carrying  a  mountain 
howitzer  was  precipitated  down  a  ravine  into  a  watercourse.  It  may  be  concluded  that  this  mode  of  transport  has  neither  the  merit  of  simplicity  nor  of 
fulfilling  its  purpose,  iiud  can  only  be  resorted  to  when  no  better  means  of  transport  can  be  had  ;  moreover,  that  cacolets,  at  the  present  day,  are  to  be 
considen  .1  as  obsolete,  and  to  be  used  only  where  they  are  still  on  hand,  and  that  no  more  new  cacolets  or  litters  should  be  provided.  We  must,  in  fact, 
resort  to  entirely  new  measures  for  the  transport  of  the  wounded.  We  must  consider  not  only  the  numerous  wars  carried  on  in  late  years  in  localities 
separated  ttOtD  the  soldier's  home  by  Immeasurable  oceans,  in  China,  India,  Mexico,  and  in  the  Smith  American  Hepublies,  but  the  late  European  wars  in 
Italy,  in  Sehleswig  Holste'm.  and  in  Austria.  There  wo  shall  see  that  already,  with  the  field  sanitary  regulations  hitherto  in  use,  the  transport  of  wounded 
should  be  divided  into  two  classes  :  1,  the  transport  of  wounded  and  sick  for  short  distances;  2,  the  transj>ort  of  the  same  for  greater  distances.  We  need 
not  repeat  that  transport  by  means  of  cacolets  or  litters,  is  adapted  neither  for  short  nor  long  distances.  Moreover,  in  central  Europe,  the  breeding  of 
mules  is  less  extensive  than  in  Mexico.     In  Europe,  there  would  be,  for  this  reason,  an  insufficient  number  of  suitable  pack-animals." 


BY    PACK   ANIMALS. 


13 


required  for  sick-transport.  They  can  be  taken  into  broken  and  precipitous  places  wbcre  wheeled 
vehicles  are  utterly  inadmissible;  or  can  convey  the  wounded  over  distances  far  too  great  and 
tedious  for  the  employment  of  hand-stretchers.  Professor  Longmore,  after  summing  up  these 
advantages,  observes,  with  equal  justice,  that  they  are  only  attainable  when,  in  the  first  instance, 
mules  of  sufficient  strength  and  docility  can  be  procured,  with  attendants  capable  of  training  and 
harnessing  them  properly,  of  placing  patients  on  the  conveyances  in  the  best  way,  and  taking  care 
of  them  on  the  march.  Without  these  adjuncts,  in  actual  campaigning,  the  animals  and  appliances 
will  be  unserviceable  (Longmore,  op.  cit.,  p.  294). 

In  1868,  Mr.  W.  B.  Booker,  of  Prince  George's  county,  Maryland,  submitted  to  the  Surgeon 
General  and  Quartermaster  General  a  plan  for  "an  attachment  to  a  saddle  for  the  use  of  a  sick 

and  wounded  soldier,"  which  he  proposed  should  be  made  part  of 
the  cavalry  equipment.1  This  proposal  naturally  met  with  little 
favor;  but  it  was  repeatedly  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  War 
Department,  and,  in  1874,  permission  was  granted  that  twelve  of 
these  contrivances  might  be  made  at  Watervliet  Arsenal.  Subse- 
quently a  board  examined2  them,  and  reported  that  they  might  be 
serviceable  at  times,  furnished  in  the  proportion  of  two  for  each 
company,  for  cavalry  expeditions 
in  mountain  regions.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1875  the  twelve  experi- 
mental saddles  were  distributed 
to  cavalry  commands  in  Wyoming 
and  Dakota,  and  pronounced  val- 
ueless.3 The  form  or  arrangement 
of  this  apparatus  is  indicated  in 
the  adjoining  wood  cuts  (Figs.  13, 
14).  Its  alleged  advantages  were 
again  brought  before  the  military 


-nooKKR's  saddle-attachment  for  the    authorities,  when,  in  August,  1876, 
.up^i  of  wmnded  men.  General    Sherman   dismissed  the 


Fig.  14.— UOOKER'ssaddle-attachmcnt  packed 
to  a  McClellan  saddle. 


•The  following  description  of  this  contrivance  was  filed  with  the  application  for  a  patent:  "This  so-called  ambulance  saddle  is  an  ordinary  cavalry- 
saddle,  having  an  attachment  consisting  of  two  upright  bars  cut  and  hinged  in  the  middle,  a  cross-bar  at  the  top  of  the  uprights  to  support  the  head,  u 
canvas  back,  and  two  leather  straps,  with  buckles,  so  arranged  as  to  support  the  apparatus  to  be  more  or  less  incliued,  to  suit  the  rider.  When  the  upright 
bars  are  placed  in  the  canvas,  they  need  not  again  be  taken  out,  but  may  be  folded  at  the  hinges,  and,  with  the  straps  inside,  may  be  rolled  into  a  compact 
bundle  ami  attached  by  the  coat -straps  to  the  cantle.  Its  weight  is  four  and  six-sixteenths  pounds,  and  probably  this  weight  might  be  considerably  dimin- 
ished. Wlirti  InfTIHttli  to  Imj  and  it  may  1>c  thus  adjusted  :  I'nstrap  it  from  the  cantle  and  place  the  sick  or  wounded  man  in  the  saddle;  insert  the  iron 
keys  in  the  lower  ends  of  the  uprights  in  the  eye-bolts,  especially  attached  to  the  saddle  for  this  purpose,  on  each  side,  near  the  base  of  the  cantle;  put 
on  the  cross-bar  and  key  it ;  hook  the  straps  to  the  eyelets  in  the  upper  parts  of  the  uprights,  having  first  buckled  the  lower  ends  of  the  straps  into  the 
staples  in  front  of  the  pommel ;  then  by  the  middle  buckles  elevate  or  depress  the  head,  as  may  be  required."  In  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated 
January  S,  1874,  *  *  "  My  invention  is  intended  expressly  for  cavalry,  but  like  any  ambulance  arrangement  may  be  used  for  infantry  if  desired. 
It  is  so  constructed  that  it  may  be  taken  apart,  rolled  in  the  piece  of  canvas  funning  the  back,  and  strapped  to  the  saddle  like  a  valise  or  other  bundle, 
its  weight  being  under  six  pounds  and  its  bulk  inconsiderable.     Each  cavalryman  may  carry  his  own,  and,  in  case  of  being  wounded  or  taken  sick  on  a 

MBOh,  this  apparatus  may  in  the  short  space  of  five  minutes  be  so  adjusted  as  toafTord  him  a  comfortable  conveyance.  An  umbrella  may  be  readily 
atia« 'hed,  though  not  an  esseutial  part  of  the  apparatus.  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  showing  it  to  a  number  of  army  surgeons  and  other  officers,  who,  I 
am  happy  to  say.  have  expressed  high  approbation  of  the  design,  saying  that  numberless  men  by  its  use  might  be  conveyed  from  the  field  who  would 
otherwise  M  unavoidably  left.'' 

•The  Bond,  OQMladMJ  of  Colonel  F.  D.  ('Ai.i.KMiEB,  Ordnance  Department,  Assistant  Surgeon  J.  S.  BlU.IXGS,  Medical  Department,  and  Captain 
C.  E.  Dn  I'A.  Ordnance  Department,  convened  at  Washington  Arsenal  in  February,  1835*  and  gave  the  opinion  that  "The  Board  do  not  think  it 
advisable  to  VOOUBMC  the  cavalry  soldier  with  the  carrying  of  this  ambulance  attachment,  however  light  it  may  be  made,  as  it  is  deemed  important  to 
his  eftlci'-ncy  to  diminish  nil  her  than  increase  the  number  of  articles  he  is  to  carry,  and  to  limit  them  to  those  of  prime  necessity.  The  Board  are  of  the 
opinion  that  the  use  of  the  attachment  in  front  of  the  saddle  is  of  little  or  no  value  for  the  carrying  of  the  sick  or  wounded  soldiers;  but,  that  altogether 
this  ambulance  saddle  has  sutlicient  merit  to  warrant  its  trial  as  an  auxiliary  to  ambulances,  stretchers,  or  other  means  in  charge  of  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment for  carrying  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  that  the  reports  of  officers  who  may  use  them  in  the  field  should  furnish  the  Imsis  of  a  final  judgment  upon 
their  merits  and  usefulness.  For  a  cavalry  expedition  or  scouting  party,  which  is  not  and  cannot  be  provided  with  wheeled  transportation,  as  in  certain 
parts  of  Arizona  and  I'tah  and  the  Northwest,  it  is  thought  prolwible  that  if  this  apparatus  were  furnished  in  the  proportion  of  about  two  to  each  company 
it  would  at  times  lie  of  lorxlOO.     It  would  not  do  for  the  transportation  of  severely  wounded  men."         *        * 

•The  saddles  were  sent  to  Koek  Island  Arsenal  April  10,  lt-?.*>,  IQflftOl  to  the  order  of  the  Lieutenant  Oeneral,  and  from  May  t'th  to  July  6th,  1875, 
three  were  sent  to  Lieutenant -Colonel  (i.  A.  (t  si  n; '.-  coin  inund,  two  to  Fort  Laramie,  two  to  Major  E.  M.  liAKKUis  command,  three  to  Fort  Leaven  worth, 
Tort  Brown,  one  to  Colonel  B.  II.  GBlKRftON'rt  command.  Two  written  reports  respecting  them  were  sent  by  the  ofteofl  p'i  nested  to  test  them. 
Captain  J.  Mix.  M  Cavalry.  roportod  from  Camp   Brown.  Wyoming,  June  12,  1876:         *         *  "The  back  is  so  arranged  that  the  rider  cannot  lean 

back,  and  in  iroing  down  ftoop  places  his  [fflOJtiffll  is  painful  in  the  extreme.  I  have  never  seen  a  place  so  destitute  of  resources  that  I  could  not  improvise 
a  more  comfortable  arrangement  of  carrying  a  sick  or  wounded  man.''  Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  T.  (1.  If  tOIB  reported,  June  10,  1876,  "I  have 
examined  and  tooted  the  new  ambulance  saddle,  and  for  practical  use  consider  it  inferior  to  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  pucks  and  litters  commonly  constructed 
to  suit  MOO  oeea>ions  by  ev<ry  one  serving  in  the  mountains.''  * 


14  TRANSPORT    OF   SICK    AND    WOUNDED 

matter  with  the  endorsement :  "I  have  examined  the  Rooker  ambulance  saddle  and  do  not  hesitate 
to  pronounce  it  useless  in  war  or  peace."  Assistant  Surgeon  S.  S.  Jessop,  U.  S.  A.,  has  commu- 
nicated an  instance  in  which  an  officer  (Lieutenant  F.  B.  Sherman,  15th  Infantry),  when  disabled, 
was  conveyed  for  some  distance  with  the  aid  of  a  contrivance  analogous  to  the  Booker  saddle 
attachment.  Mr.  Sherman  has  had  the  goodness  to  furnish  a  statement,  which  is  subjoined  in  a 
footnote,1  of  his  recollection  of  this  incident.  In  great  exigencies,  a  wounded  man  may  be  carried 
off  on  horseback,2  either  tied  on,  suspended  in  a  blanket,3  or  supported  by  a  pad  or  pillion  behind  a 
comrade,  to  relieve  him  of  exertion  in  guiding  or  holding  on  to  the  horse:456 

In  the  operations  against  the  Modoc  Indians,  in  the  lava-beds  of  California,  extending  from 
December,  1872,  to  May,  1873,  the  ordinary  methods  of  transport  were  found  unsuitable  and  a 
form  of  mule-litter,  devised  by  Assistant  Surgeon  H.  McElderry,  U.  S,  A.,  proved  serviceable  and 
well  adapted  to  the  exigencies  encountered.  Dr.  McElderry  sent  one  of  these  litters  to  the  Army 
Medical  Museum,  and  in  a  letter  dated  Fort  Klamath,  March  3,  1874,  described  it  as  follows: 

"I  transmit  a  box  containing  a  mule-litter,  devised  by  me  for  use  in  the  lava-beds  about  Rhett  Lake,  California,  during 
the  late  Modoc  campaign, — the  ordinary  form  of  litter  drawn  by  two  horses  having  been  found  entirely  unfitted  for  service  in 
such  broken  country,  abounding  in  narrow  and  winding  defiles.  A  harness  gear,  aparejo,  and  appliances,  to  be  used  with  the 
litter,  is  also  contained  in  the  box.  It  is  believed  that  this  form  of  litter,  besides  being  especially  adapted  to  the  character  of 
country  for  which  it  was  devised,  will  be  found  also  of  service  in  mountainous  districts,  and  on  the  frontier  generally;  and  it  is 

1  Mr.  Sherman's  note  is  dated  Fort  Union,  New  Mexico,  January  25,  1877:  *  *  "  Dr.  Jessop  has  confounded  two  occasions.  The  only  time  I 
have  been  wounded  iny  transportation  was  an  army  wagon,  and  I  do  not  think  a  description  of  this  mode  of  conveyance  is  needed,  nor  are  my  recollec- 
tions of  my  twenty  miles  ride  sufficiently  pleasant  to  enable  me  to  recommend  such  transport.  But  when  out  on  a  scout  in  Texas  some  years  since,  I 
was  taken  very  ill  and  completely  prostrated,  so  that  I  could  not  sit  upon  my  horse.  It  was  an  absolute  necessity  for  our  party  to  get  back  to  the  fort, 
and  I  found  myself  an  encumbrance.  Some  Tonkawa  Indians,  along  with  us,  said  they  knew  a  way  to  carry  me.  I  was  placed  in  a  saddle  and  a  lean- 
back  was  made ;  a  bent  twig  or  sapling  inclined  at  an  angle  of  50°  was  attached  to  the  rings  at  the  crupper  of  the  saddle,  and  I  was  securely  attached  to 
it  by  a  rope.  My  legs  were  stretched  out  along  the  side  of  the  horse  and  also  tied  in  some  way  to  a  small  branch  run  along  by  them,  and  attached  to  the 
saddle.  I  was  too  sick  to  remember  much  about  it,  but  know  I  felt  secure.  The  back  was  made  by  running  the  ends  of  the  sapling  into  the  saddle- 
rings.     My  arms  were  tied  to  my  body,  but  not  closely.     I  think  I  have  read  of  a  similar  method  used  in  Europe,  but  much  improved. "' 

2PEUCY  (Art.  Despotats,  in  Diet,  des  Set.  Mid.,  T.  VIII,  p.  565)  believed  it  historically  established  that  the  ancient  Celts  carried  off  their  wounded 
in  battle  by  laying  them  across  the  backs  of  horses.  It  is  well  known  that  under  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Leo  I,  who  obtained  victories  over  the  Huns, 
but  was  repulsed  by  GexbkkIC  in  Africa,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Vth  century,  it  was  customary  for  ten  or  twelve  mounted  men,  called  despotati  (their 
saddles  provided  with  two  stirrups  on  the  near  or  left  side  of  the  horse),  to  follow  each  cohort,  to  pick  up  and  transport  wounded  men.  It  is  stated  by 
ItsKNSEE  and  COHEN,  in  their  history  of  medicine  (Groningen,  1843),  that  in  the  succeeding  century  the  Emperor  Mauritius  ordered  that  each  cavalry 
division  of  400  men  should  be  followed  by  8  or  10  picked  men  of  activity  and  determination,  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  aiding  the  wounded  by  giving 
restoratives,  applying  temporary  dressings,  and  transporting  them  from  the  field  of  danger.  Fischeu  (Lehrbuch  der  Kriegs.-Chir.,  1806,  p  208)  adds 
that  each  received  an  honorarium  for  every  wounded  man  he  succored. 

3  In  their  most  instructive  work  entitled  Shifts  and  Expedients  of  Camp  Life,  Messrs  W.  B.  Lord,  Royal  Artillery,  and  T.  BaIXES,  F.  R.  C.  S. 
(London,  1871,  p.  687),  suggest:  "In  a  case  of  great  emergency  the  ends  of  a  blanket  might  be  knotted  together;  and,  two  men  being  laid  in  the  bights, 
the  central  part  might  be  laid  across  the  back  of  a  horse,  with  one  man  hanging  on  each  side,  and  secured  with  the  best  means  available  at  the  moment. 
Among  civilized  nations  it  would,  perhaps,  be  better  to  leave  the  wounded  to  the  mercy  of  a  victorious  enemy  than  to  risk  the  extinction  of  life  by  such 
rough  means;  but  in  fighting  savages,  no  living  man  ought,  under  any  circumstances,  to  be  left  in  their  power,  and  a  soldier  had  better  die  under  the 
rough,  though  kindly,  efforts  of  his  comrades  to  remove  him  than  become  a  prisoner — to  be  kept  alive  as  long  as  he  is  capable  of  enduring  torture.'* 

4SCHMUCKER  (J.  L.)  (Chirurgische  Wahrnehmungen,  Berlin,  1774,  Theil  I,  p.  346)  relates:  "After  the  battle  of  Liegnitz,  August  15,  1760,  *  * 
I  ordered  the  severely  wounded  to  be  placed  on  pork-,  provision-,  or  bread-wagons,  and  the  slightly  wounded  to  move  along  slowly  without  equipment. 
There  yet  remained  five  hundred  men,  mostly  wounded  in  the  upper  extemities,  for  whom  no  means  of  transportation  were  provided.  As  it  was  neces- 
sary to  follow  the  moving  army,  I  quickly  made  up  my  mind  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued.  I  ordered  the  men  to  be  put  together  In  one  place,  and 
proceeded  in  person  to  the  Adjutant  General  von  Krusemarck.  I  informed  him  that  these  men  were  entirely  unable  to  march ;  but  if  the  General  would 
give  orders  to  unseat  a  regiment  of  dragoons,  all  might  be  carried  along.  My  proposition  was  assented  to;  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour  all  the  wounded 
were  on  horseback,  and  the  dragoons  marched  alongside.  In  the  evening  we  reached  Parch  witz,  where  the  army  camped.  The  next  day  we  marched 
in  the  same  manner,  until,  on  the  third  day,  I  reached  Ureslau  with  all  the  wounded." 

6"  After  the  abandonment  of  the  siege  of  St.  Joan  d'Acre  there  was  a  total  want  of  any  kind  of  conveyance  for  the  wounded,  and  Bonaparte 
directed  that  all  the  horses  of  mounted  officers  should  be  used  for  this  purpose,  an  order  he  enforced  by  example,  by  marching  on  foot  with  the  rest  of  his 
army.  The  wounded  must  otherwise  have  been  abandoned  in  the  desert  to  have  their  throats  cut  by  the  Arabs." — (Lakiiky,  Camp.  tVEgypte,  p.  312.)  In 
tin'  Sepoy  mutiny  of  1857,  in  General  LUOAHUS  field  force,  on  many  occasions  the  number  made  helpless  by  wounds  or  sickness  was  greater  than  the 
regular  means  of  transport  would  accommodate.  To  leave  these  disabled  men  would  have  exposed  them  to  atrocities  too  horrible  to  contemplate.  Yet 
an  advance  was  imperative.  Under  such  circumstances  every  available  means  of  conveyance  was  adopted,  and  the  disabled  were  taken  to  a  place  of 
safety  under  a  strong  cavalry  escort,  which  promptly  rejoined  the  main  body  and  enabled  the  advance  to  be  continued. — (GORDON  (C.  A.)  Army  Hygiene, 
London,  1866,  p.  217.) 

"Prof.  A.  BektiieranI),  Director  of  the  School  of  Medicine  of  Algiers,  remarks  (Campagnes  de  Kabylie,  Paris,  1862,  p.  116):  "Every  one  has 
heard  of  the  sure  and  rapid  means  employed  by  the  Arabs  to  transport  from  the  field  of  battle  the  victims  of  shot  wounds.  We  have  often  seen  from  a 
distance,  notably  during  the  murderous  expedition  of  1840  und  1841,  groups  of  the  enemy  assembled  about  a  pack-animal  or  a  stretcher  hastily  eon- 
strutted  of  two  branches,  and  carrying  off  at  a  run  a  precious  burthen,  revealed  by  a  fluttering  burnous  or  a  pendant  limb,  or  a  dead  or  wounded  soldier. 
But,  at  a  distance,  we  could  not  discern  how  the  patient  was  attached  and  supported  on  these  improvised  appliances.  Thanks  to  Stair  Captain  Dupin, 
who  had  occasion  to  make  a  nearer  inspection  of  them,  we  are  enabled  better  to  appreciate  their  mechanism  and  adaptation  to  exigencies.  The  removal 
of  the  wounded  on  traverses  of  wood  covered  with  moss,  dry  leaves,  the  cloaks  or  outer  garments  of  the  country  (burnous,  haik),  of  sometimes  by  huge 
grain-sacks  (theirs),  need  not  detain  us.  It  is  hammock  system  in  its  priiniiive  rudeness,  easily  constructed  of  the  first  available  materials,  ami  far 
inferior  to  the  perfected  stretcher  (brancard)  of  the  French  army.  Transport  on  the  back  of  mules  or  horses  is  of  greater  interest,  responding  to  more 
important  indications.  The  plan  is  this:  On  either  side  of  the  large  pack-saddle  with  which  the  animal  is  equipped,  at  a  level  with  its  most  projecting 
part,  a  large  sack  stuffed  full  of  straw,  leaves,  or  grass,  is  attached,  in  such  position  that  the  convexities  of  the  two  sacks  and  tne  upper  surface  of  the 
saddle  are  all  in  the.  same  horizontal  plane.  The  surface  is  covered  with  a  pallet  of  hay  or  straw  or  by  some  sort  of  mattress  made  of  folded  stuff,  on 
which  the  patient  i.s  laid  cross-wise  to  the  animal,  and  in  the  line  of  the  long  axis  of  this  couch.  Afterward  brandies  are  arched  over  the  litter  to  protect 
the  patient,  if  need  be,  from  the  sun  or  rain." 


KY    PACK    ANIMAL*. 


15 


respectfully  suggested  that  ■  certain  Dumber  Ol  them  be  constructed  and  issued  at  frontier  posts  for  trial.  Tliey  should  in- 
variably he  used  with  the  aparrjn,  the  hack  of  the  animal  being  first  protected  by  two  ordinary  saddle-blankets  properly  folded. 
If  this  he  done  and  the  litter  hi'  properly  secured  in  its  place,  the  ordinary  precautions  being  taken,  the  mule's  back  will  never 
he  made  son..  As  originally  used,  the  litter  was  lashed  with  ropes  to  the.  aparejo.  This  is  perhaps  the  more  satisfactory  way 
of  Bzlllg  it  in  its  place.  As,  however,  a  skilled  packer  may  not  always  he  on  hand,  it  was  thought  advisable  to  secure  it  with 
a  broad  girth.  This  plan  has  been  found  to  work  well  and  satisfactorily.  Owing  to  the  want  of  the  proper  materials  at  the 
post,  the  litter  forwarded  could  not  lie  made  exactly  as  was  devised.  For  instance,  all  the  hinges  about  it  should  be  larger 
and  stronger;  the  rings,  through  which  the  arm-straps  pass,  should  be  triangularly  shaped;  and  all  the  rings  that  come  in 
contact  with  the  ropes  or  canvas  should  be  made  of  galvanized  iron,  to  prevent  rusting.  The  litter  forwarded  was  constructed 
for  me  by  Hiram  Field,  quartermaster's  employ*!  at  this  post,  and  formally  years  past  in  the  Government  service.  To  him  I 
am  also  indebted  for  several  valuable  suggestions  in  originally  planning  it." 

An  additional  report  on  this  subject,  dated  Washington  Arsenal,  January  17,  1877,  was 
transmitted  to  the  Surgeon  General  by  Dr.  McElderry,  with  drawings  by  Lieutenant  J.  P.  Wisser, 
1st  Artillery,  of  the  different  parts  of  the  apparatus. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  for  your  consideration  drawings  of  a  mule-litter  which  I  respectfully  recommend  for  adop- 
tion in  the  army  for  use  on  the  frontier  in  campaigns  against  hostile  Indians.  The  following  are  some  of  the  advantages  of 
this  form  of  fitter.  As  was  demonstrated  by  experience  in  the  field  during  the  Modoc  campaign  in  the  lava-beds  in  southern 
Oregon  and  northern  California  in  1873,  the  proposed  style  of  litter  is 
specially  adapted  for  use  in  broken,  rough,  and  mountainous  country;  along 
narrow  and  winding  defiles,  abounding  in  sudden  and  abrupt  turns  and 
angles;  and  in  places  and  under  circumstances  generally  where  no  other 
kind  of  litter  could  be  employed.  A  wounded  man  can  be  transported  on 
this  litter  with  entire  safety  on  the  back  of  any  steady  pack-mule  or  horse, 
taken  indiscriminately  out  of  the  pack-train;  the  animal  not  requiring  any 
special  training  before  he  will  pack  it,  otherwise  than  he  has  already 
received  in  the  pack-train.  Every  officer  of  any  practical  experience  in 
scouting  on  the  frontier  knows  that,  before  the  pack-mules  or  cavalry  horses 
can  be  made  to  work  satisfactorily  in  the  double  horse-litters  now  issued  in 
the  anny,  every  such  animal  requires,  in  each  case,  a  special  and  more  or 
less  prolonged  system  of  training  and  daily  drills  in  these  litters.  Several 
litters  are  usually  broken  to  pieces  before  the  animals  can  be  made  to  work 
steadily.  It  is  nearly  always  found  impracticable  to  give  the  animals  such 
special  training,  for  the  reason  that  on  an  Indian  campaign  transportation  is 
always  cut  down  to  the  minimum,  and  consequently  no  extra  animals  can  be 
taken  for  use  in  the  litter  -train.  It  is  seldom  possible  to  obtain  the  quarter- 
master's pack-animals  for  such  preparatory  drills,  as  they  are  forced  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case  to  carry  packs  all  day, 
and  when  camp  is  reached  at  night  there  is  no  time  and  the  animals  are  in  no  condition  for  any  such  drills.  The  consequence 
is.  that  when  the  urgent  necessity  for  the  use  of  the  lifter-train  actually  arises,  among  all  the  animals  turned  over  to  the  medical 
officer  for  such  service  there  will  not  be  more  than  one  or  two  that  can  be  used ;  the  others  all  refuse  to  work  in  the  litters,  and 
ultimately  some  other  means  has  to  be  resorted  to  for  the  transportation  of  the  wounded.  Only  one  animal  is  required  for  use 
with  this  fitter,  and  consequently  there  is  no  useless  expenditure 
of  labor,  as  when  two  horses  are  required  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  one  man.  The  litter  can  be  bided  compactly  together, 
so  as  to  permit  a  load  of  grain,  provisions,  etc.,  to  be  packed 
upon  it.  The  animal  having  arrived  at  its  destination,  the 
load  is  removed,  the  litter  is  unfolded,  and  becomes  available 
for  the  transportation  of  the  wounded  back  to  the  base  of  sup- 
plies. By  the  use  of  the  adjustable  iron  rapport,  which  raises 
up  over  the  lower  end  of  the  litter,  a  wounded  lower  extremity 
ran  be  suspended  in  the  anterior  or  other  splint,  and  the  patient 
thus  carried  with  much  greater  ease  anil  comfort  than  when  the 
wounded  member  is  simply  laid  upon  or  fixed  to  the  litter. 
Died  upon  the  Mexican  ajnirejo,  which  is  now  universally 
found  in  the  pack-trains  upon  the  Pacific  coast  and  Texas 
frontiers,  this  litter,  being  well  balanced,  is  easily  and  com- 
fortably carried  by  the  pack-animal,  and  consequently  has  no 

tendency  to  make  the  animal's  back  sore.  This  is  always,  found  a  source  of  serious  trouble  in  packing  the  long  poles  of  the 
double  hone-Utter  now  in  use.  They  are  so  long  that  they  have  to  be  packed  crosswise  on  the  pack-saddle,  and  in  consequence 
invariably  cause  so  much  wabbling  of  the  saddle  that,  after  they  have  been  carried  for  a  day  or  two,  the  pack-mule  gets  a  sore 
back,  and  is  henceforth  nntit  for  use  for  some  time  during  the  campaign.  As  will  be  seen,  the  present  form  of  litter  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  the  one  devised  by  me  and  constructed  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  the  service  in  the  Modoc  campaign, 
and  the  model  of  which  is  now  in  the  Anny  Medical  Museum.  Like  that  model  it  is  intended  to  be  constructed  of  strong  wood 
braced  with  iron  rods,  with  strong  hinges  to  bear  the  rough  usage  of  frontier  field  service,  so  as  not  to  be  easily  broken  or 
otherwise  rendered  unfit  for  service.     Several  modifications,  suggested  by  experience  and  reflection,  have  been  added,  in  order 


FIG.  15.— McEldkrky's  single  mule-litter. 


Scale  of  inches. 


Flo.  1C— Plan  of  McEldeury's  single  mule-litter. 


16 


TRANSPORT   OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 


to  cause  the  litter  to  fold  up  more  compactly  and  to  add  to  the  comfort  of  the  patient.  The  upper  part  of  the  heavy  canvas 
which  forms  the  hed  is  intended  to  be  made  of  double  thickness,  to  be  left  open  above.  Into  the  pocket  thus  formed,  hay  or 
prairie-grass  is  to  be  stuffed,  and  the  upper  edges  of  the  canvas  tied  together  with  cords  sewed  on  for  the  purpose.  This  forms 
the  pillow.  A  canvas  awning  has'  been  sketched  on  the  plan,  intended  to  be  stretched  from  head  to  foot-board  of  the  litter  over 
the  raised  iron  support,  and  tied  in  place  by  the  cords  attached  to  its  edges.  An  aparejo,  furnished  with  a  good  broad  breast- 
strap  and  crupper,  is  first  lashed  to  the  animal's  back  with  its  girth  in  the  usual  way,  and  the  litter,  being  then  placed  upon  it, 
is  firmly  fixed  in  position  by  means  of  an  extra-broad  California  horse-hair  girth,  as  shown  in  the  figure.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested to  me  that  this  litter  might  be  constructed  of  iron,  to  render  it  lighter  and  more  compact  for  transportation.  It  is  possible 
that  this  might  be  done,  and  I  intended  to  submit  drawings  for  a  model  of  this  form  of  litter  to  be  constructed  of  iron.  Upon 
reflection,  however,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  could  be  much  better  done  after  due  consultation  and  deliberation  with  some 
competent  practical  mechanic  authorized  to  construct  the  litter  of  such  material.  It  is  believed  that  by  the  aid  of  the  drawings 
herewith  submitted,  and  the  model  already  in  the  Army  Medical  Museum,  and  any  required  information  that  I  should  be  able  to 
furnish  him,  that  a  competent  mechanic  would  have  no  difficulty  in  constructing  two  models,  one  of  wood,  braced  with  iron 
rods,  and  one  entirely  of  iron.  If  the  style  of  litter  herewith  submitted  should  receive  the  approbation  of  the  Surgeon  General 
and  the  construction  of  a  number  be  authorized  for  use  in  the  Army,  I  would  respectfully  suggest  that  two  such  model  litters 
be  made  for  inspection  and  comparison,  when  the  one  considered  most  suitable  for  the  service  may  be  selected  as  a  model  and 
guide  for  the  construction  of  the  others.  The  drawings  herewith  submitted  were  kindly  made  for  me  by  Lieutenant  J.  P. 
Wisser,  and  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  him  for  the  artistic  and  accurate  maimer  in  which  he  has  performed  the  work." 

Dr.  McElderry's  litter  weighs,  without  a  mattress,  fifty-four  pounds.  The  aparejo  and  appur- 
tenances weigh  fifty-one  pounds.  Like  the  litter  of  Captain  Thistle  (ante,  p.  5)  and  those  exhibited 
by  MM.  Philippe  and  Locati,1  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867,  it  has  the  advantage  that  its  width 
does  not  much  exceed  the  outer  limits  of  the  flanks  of  the  pack-auimals;  a  condition  adapting  it 
to  the  passage  of  narrow  defiles  or  canons,  or  of  roads  encumbered  by  vehicles. 

The  following  passage  and  illustrations  are  extracted  from  a  report  to  the  Cornell  de  SanU  by 
M.  Gouchet,2  m6decin-major,  serving  with  the  1st  Zouaves,  in  the  French  corps  sent  to  Mexico, 
in  1864.  Referring  to  a  skirmish  at  Uspinosso  del  Diablo,  January  1,  1865,  and  describing  the 
disposition  made  for  the  carriage  of  the  slightly  wounded,  he  remarks: 

"It  remained  for  us  to   provide  for  the  transport  over 
broken  and  difficult  ground  of  four  wounded  men,  who  needed  a 
recumbent  position,  and  could  not  endure  the  cacolets,  while  we 
nad  no  regulation  mule-litters.  On  the  pack-saddles  of  four  strong 
and  docile  mules  we  applied  two  transverses,  strongly  bound  tc 
the  front  and  rear  ledges  (pommel  and  cantle),  to  support  twc 
parallel  bars  arranged  to  support  the  side  poles  of  the  stretcher 
on  which  the  wounded  man  was  carried.     The  stretcher  was 
securely  attached  on   this  framework  by  ropes  fastened  to  the 
four  handles  of  the  stretcher  and  then  knotted  on  rings  of  the 
pack-saddle.    *    *    The  patient's  head,  as  he  lay  on  the  stretcher, 
was  a  little  above  and  behind  the  mule's  head    *    *    with  his 
feet  stretched  backwards.     He  experienced  on  the  march  little 
lateral  oscillation,  but  only  the  longitudinal  movement  produced 
by  the  walk  of  the  pack-animal.     This  was  proportioned  to  the 
inclination  of  the  roads,  and  when  these  were  steep,  the  attend- 
ants were  directed  to  support  the  stretcher  during  ascents  and 
to  press  it  down  strongly  when    descending  declivities.     On 
commencing  the  march,  the  patient,  laid  on  the  Btretcher,  was  placed  on  the  pack-mule,  and  the  handles  of  the  stretcher  were 
strongly  secured,  as  already  said,  and  the  men  of  the  train  being  at  their  posts,  they  moved  off  at  a  very  gentle  gait,  to  avoid 
jolting  over  the  narrow  and  rugged  paths.     The  patients  on  the  stretchers  bore  the  journey  very  well,  and,  after  a  little  expe- 
rience, preferred  this  mode  of  conveyance  to  the  regulation  litters, 
which  have  great  lateral  swaying,  very  fatiguing  on  such  diffi- 
cult roads.     They  only  complained  of  feeling  on  their  backs  the 
pressure  of  the  forward  bow  of  the  pack-saddle,  which,  after  a 
while,  much  incommoded  them.     But  the  patients  themselves 
remedied  this  inconvenience  by  shifting  their  positions,  or  by 
stuffing  in  something  to  increase  the  thickness  of  the  pallet  at 
that  part." 

This  adaptation  of  ordinary  hand-stretchers  to  the  purposes  of  a  single-litter  mule  convey- 
ance is  admirable  in  principle;  and  if  means  can  be  devised  to  secure  such  stretchers  on  pack- 
animals  without  pitching  them  so  high  as  to  endanger  the  patient  and  encumber  the  animal,  such 
arrangement  would  be  the  simplest  and  best. 

1  VAX  Dommklkx  (O.  F.),  Essai  sur  les  moyens  de.  Transport  et  des  Secours  en  general  aux  lilessis  el  Malmles  en  Temps  de  Guerre,  La  Haye,  1870 
pp.  12,  13,  et  Planche  VI,  Figs.  1,  2.     See  Gbossiikim's  comments  on  McEldkkky'h  litter,  in  Deutsche  Mil.  Zeitschr.,  1877,  p.  68. 
1  Rff.ueil  de  Mimerires  de  Mideeine  de  C'/n'ritn/ie  rt  dr  l'hnrmficie  Militairrs,  SemelMe,  l^lfi,  T.  XIV,  p.  540, 


FIG.  17.-Single  mole-litter  used  by  the  French  in  Mexico.  [After  Gouciikt.] 


Fig.  18. — Patient  borne  on  a  field-stretcher  secured  to  a  pack-saddle 
[After  Gouciikt] 


BY    PACK    ANIMALS. 


17 


FIG.  19. — GttKENLKAF's  combined  hand  and  horde  litter  hitched  to  a  mule.     [From  a  drawing  by  Dr.  GltRRN'LEAF.] 


A  mode  of  trausporting  sick  and  wounded  by  conveyances  that  at  one  end  rest  on  the  ground, 
so  that  the  patient  is  drawn,  but  only  partially  sustained,  by  the  pack-animal,  is  mentioned  by  early 
travellers  among  the  Xorth  American  Indians.  Parknian  indicates1  that  in  the  war  with  Pontiac, 
in  17C3,  the  colonists  carried  their  wounded  by  this  contrivance,  and,  in  a  later  work,*  refers  to  the 
travail  used  by  the  Oregon  Indians;  and  Lewis  and  Clark*  resorted  to  it  in  1S05,  to  carry  a  wounded 
hunter  of  their  party.  Latterly,  this  method  of  transport  has  received  much  attention  from  medical 
officers,  as  well  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  frontier  service.  Surgeon  C.  R.  Greenleaf,  U.  S.  A., 
has  remarked  on  this  form  of  conveyance: 

"I  know  of  nothing  belter  for  scouting  parties,  than  a  litter  made  after  the  following  plan,  which  is  borrowed  from  a 
custom  among  the  Indiana,  quite  familiar  to  all  officers  who  have  seen  any  service  on  our  frontiers.  It  coiiHiBts  of  four  ash  poles, 
two  for  shafts  and  two  for  litter-poles — the  former  are  7  feet  f>  inches  long,  S  inches  wide,  2}  inches  deep  at  the  butt,  and  ljxlj 
inches  at  the  point  |  the  latter  are  H  feet  fi  inches  long,  2  inches  wide,  and  2}  inches  deep,  with  rounded  edges  and  cornel's.  On 
one  end  of  the  litter  -pole  ■  riveted  two  wrought  iron  (best  Norway)  bands  )  inch  thick  and  1$  inch  wide.  One  of  these  collars 
is  get  2  inches  from  the  end  of  the  litter  pole,  and  has  a  diameter  of  lif  inches  by  2  inches;  the  other  is  set  12  inches  from  the 
end  of  the  poles,  and  has  a  diameter  of  5g  inches  by  9  inches.  The  opposite  end  of  the  litter-pole  is  shod  with  an  iron  thimble 
1  foot  long.  Two  cross-bars,  30xlix2i  inches,  with  a  square  collar  of  iron  i  inch  thick  by  li  inch  wide  on  each  end,  serve  to 
keep  (In-  poles  separated 
and  steady;  the  collars 
should  have  a  diameter 
of  2x2}  inches,  and  the 
litter-pole  must  be  square 
at  its  front  end  and  2$ 
feet  from  the  rear  end 
for  their  reception.  A 
canvas  lied  t>  feet  by  32 
inches,  with  strongly 
bound  eyelets  8  inches 
apart  on  the  upper  end 
and  upper  three  feet  of 
the  sides,  and  perma- 
nently fastened  to  the 
lower  three  feet   of  the 

sides,  completes  the  affair.  The  litter  is  dragged  by  a  horse  or  mule  hitched  into  the  shafts — the  rear  end  of  the  litter-poles 
resting  on  the  ground,  the  patient  occupying  the  canvas  bag  in  the  middle.  To  put  it  together,  the  small  end  of  the  shaft  is  passed 
from  behind  forward,  through  the  rear  and  largest  collar  on  the  front  eud  of  the  litter-pole,  thence  through  the  smaller  collar, 
and  then  "  pulled  borne,"  until  the  butt  of  the  shafts  is  tightly  embraced  by  the  collars;  the  cross-bars  are  then  put  into  their 
respective  places  by  slipping  their  collars  over  the  front  and  rear  ends  of  the  litter-poles  and  pushing  them  securely  home,  the 
canvas  bed  lashed  to  the  poles  by  rope  passing  through  the  side  eyelets  and  around  the  poles,  and  through  the  end  eyelets  and 
around  the  cross-bars;  the  ropes  at  the  head  of  the  bed  should  be  slack,  to  afford  "bag"  enough  to  the  canvas  to  bring  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  the  patient  nearly  on  a  level  with  his  feet. 
By  the  arrangement  of  splicing  the  shafts  to  the  litter-poles 
through  collars  of  unequal  sizes,  a  constant  tightening  of  the 
parts  goes  on  by  the  force  exerted  by  the  animal  in  pulling 
the  litter,  and  no  opportunity  for  loosening  occurs;  while,  as 
the  greatest  weight  occurs  at  this  point,  additional  strength  is 
gained  through  the  iron  collar  and  the  double  thickness  of 
pole.  With  a  collar  and  harness,  which  could  be  carried 
without  much  tumble,  the  litter  can  be  hitched  to  a  mule  by  a 
chain  attached  to  the  harness,  and  having  on  its  end  a  goose- 
neck pin  to  pierce  the  shaft  from  below,  and  be  fastened  above 
by  a  nut  or  linchpin.  To  unship  the  litter,  give  a  smart  blow 
on  the  small  end  of  the  shaft,  which  will  drive  it  back  through 
the  collars,  when  it  can  be  taken  out;  remove  the  cross-bars, 
unfasten  the  ropes,  and  wrap  the  poles  and  cross-bars  in  the 
canvas,  packing  the  whole  thing  like  a  tent  on  a  pack  mule.     For  use  as  a  hand-litter,  it  is  only  necessary  to  unship  the  shafts.'''1 

1  Pakkhak  (P.,  jr.),  History  of  Ike  Conspiracy  nf  Pontiac  and  the  War  of  the  North  American  Tribes,  Boston,  1855,  p.  61)1.  After  the  battle  of 
Bushy  Run.  August  fi.  17(3,  Colonel  H.  BOUUjUR  wrote  to  his  excellency,  Sir  J.  Ahiieust,  describing  the  litters  constructed  after  the  Indian  fashion  by 
the  four  companies  under  hi*  command  to  cam-  oft*  their  wounded. 

■PAUKMA-I  (F..  jr.),  California  anil  Oregon  Trail,  being  sketches  of  Prairie  and  Rocky  Mountain  Life:  12  mo.,  New  York,  1849,  p.  165. 

1  History  of  the  AyMlfffflM  under  the  command  of  Captains  Lewis  and  Ct.AltK  to  the  sources  of  the  Missouri,  thence  across  the  Rncky  Mountains 
and  down  the  Rirer  Columbia  to  the  Pac\Hc  Ocean,  performed  during  the  years  1804-5-6,  by  order  of  the  Government  of  the  United  Stales.  By  PAUL 
Alia, . -<|iiiri-.  niflnlrtiiMe   ISM,  Vol.  II,  p.  381. 

4  Kxtraet  from  a  Report  made  in  eompliu with  Circular  Orders   Re,  :t.  War  Department.  S.  G.  0.,  November  2S,  1874,  by  Assistant  Surgeon 

CHAKIKs  It.  i'iikkm.kaf,  U.  8.  A.,  dated   Bnaterille,  Alabama,  December  14,  1874.     On  October  27,  1876,  Dr.  OKEE.NLEAK  • rilmt.il  to  the  Army 

Medical  Museum  a  model  of  this  combined  hand-  and  horse  litter,  which  is  numbered  804  in  Section  VI, ~A.  M.  M. 

3 


Kic  90. — -TiKKKNLKAf'h  combined  hand  and  horso  litter  used  as  a  hand- 
litter.     [from  a  drawing  by  I>r.  Ciukm.kaf.] 


18 


TRANSPORT    OK    SICK    AND    WOUNDED 


Fig.  21.— Horse-litter  proposed  by  Dr.  C'LKAKY,  II.  S.  A. 


Efforts  were  made  by  several  other  medical  officers  to  systematize  this  mode  of  transport: 

In  November,  1875,  Assistant  Surgeon  P.  J.  A.  Cleary,  U.  S.  A.,  reported  to  the  Surgeon  General's  Office  his  observa- 
tion! at  Fort  Sill  and  elsewhere,  in  the  Indian  Territory,  on  the  facility  with  which  the  Indians  transported  their  sick  and  aged 
or  infirm  on  litters  dragged  by  ponies,  and  suggested  that  analogous  conveyances  might  he  utilized  for  the  transport  of  wounded 
in  cavalry  scouts,  and  in  marches  in  difficult  country  where  the  use  of  wheeled  vehicles  was  impracticable.  April  15,  1876,  Dr. 
Cleary  sent  to  the  Army  Medical  Museum  a  model  and  descriptive  statement  of  a  modification   of  this  Indian  litter  that  he 

would  recommend  as  adapted  to  army  use.  This  model  is  numbered  774,  Section 
VI,  A.  M.  M.,  and  is  represented  in  the  accompanying  wood-cut  (Fig.  21).  Dr. 
Cleary  writes:  "In  the  process  of  constructing  the  model  of  a  horse-litter  which 
I  send  to  the  Museum  by  express,  I  have  more  than  once  altered  the  details  of  my 
original  plan,  and  the  model,  although  as  near  an  approximation  as  I  can  make  to 
my  design,  does  not  exactly  carry  out  my  ideas.     The  chief  defects  of  the  model 

are  that  if  enlarged  to  full  size 
the  parts  would  be  too  heavy 
and  clumsy.  The  shafts  should 
be  light,  and.  at  the  same  time, 
strong  and  elastic.  The  wood- 
work should  be  all  oak.  The 
harness  is  of  secondary  im- 
portance, and  on  the  model  is 
but  rudely  represented,  but  it 
is  the  best  I  can  construct  with 
the  material  at  my  disposal. 
But  one  point  in  the  harness 
needs  special  notice,  viz:  the 
straps  across  the  horee's  hips, 
which  support  the  shafts;  the 
object  being  to  prevent  the 
horse,  in  case  he  rears  up,  from 

jumping  out  of  the  shafts,  or  kicking  the  patients ;  by  this  strap  he  lifts  up  the  litter  every  time  he  attempts  to  kick,  and  so  can- 
not reach  the  patient  However,  a  kicking  horse  is  not  the  kind  for  the  sick  under  any  circumstances.  As  to  the  litter  proper, 
it  needs  but  little  explanation.     Each  side-pole  is  jointed;    by  withdrawing  a  pin  it  conies  apart,  leaving  the  shafts  in  the 

harness,  and  the  stretcher-frame  disconnected.     The  length  of  the  connected  side-poles 

. — — ^— ?-— — fft -^~Z^7       should  be  17  feet,  viz  :  5  feet  occupied  by  the  horse,  3  feet  from  rear  of  horse  to  first 

/   1      i      1 \      if^i.        traverse  or  cross-piece  of  litter,  7  feet  for  bed  of  litter,  2  feet  from  bed  of  litter  to  end, 

I  1      I )     i£^>      total  17  feet,     I  have  a  large  one  almost  completed,  and  shall  test  it  in  a  short  time  and 

report  how  it  works.  The  advantages  which  the  litter  appears  to  me  to  possess  are : 
1.  Simplicity  of  construction.  2.  Facility  of  transportation,  as  it  can  be  easily  rolled 
up  and  carried  either  in  a  wagon  or  strapped  to  a  horse.  3.  It  can  easily  be  drawn  by  one  animal.  4.  It  requires  but  one  man 
to  work  it,  who  can,  by  laying  it  on  the  ground,  easily  shift  even  a  severely  wounded  man  into  it,  and  then  lifting  it  can  readily 
attach  the  litter  proper  to  the  part  forming  the  shafts.  It  requires  two  or  more  persons  to  lift  a  wounded  man  into  an  ambulance 
wagon.  5.  The  facility  with  which  a  patient  can  be  brought  into  a  hospital — here,  again,  by  detaching  it  at  the  joint  it  is  con- 
verted into  a  band-litter  on  which  the  patient  can  be  conveyed  by  two  men  to  the  ward  of  the  hospital.  6.  Regularity  of  its 
motion;  instead  of  jumping  over  irregularities  of  the  road,  as  a  wheeled  vehicle,  the  poles,  by  dragging  along,  necessarily  ascend 
and  descend  all  irregularities  of  the  ground  by  gradual  motion.  7.  Its  general  adaptability  for  any  kind  of  ground — for  instance 
in  crossing  canons  and  deep  gullies,  the  litter  proper  could  be  easily  detached,  anil  a  man  at  either  end  carry  it  as  a  hand-litter 
over  any  obstruction  and  again  attach  it,  and  finally,  for  any  slight  obstruction,  the  driver,  without  detaching  it,  could  lift  the 
rear — the  forward  part  being  held  in  the  harness — until  the  obstruction  was  passed ;  none  of  which  can  be  done  with  an  ambu- 
lance. Were  it  to  be  sent  out  with  a  cavalry  command,  and  not  required  for  actual  use,  it  would  occupy  but  a  small  space,  and 
need  not  have  even  a  horse  sent  with  it — when,  if  required,  the  trooper's  horse  could  be  used  to  haul  it.  I  should  explain  that 
the  upper  and  lower  straps  [attached  to  the  side  poles  but  not  represented  in  the  drawing]  are  intended  to  pass  under  the  patient's 
buttocks  and  over  the  thighs,  fastening  to  the  upper  part  of  the  litter — the  upper  one  to  pass  under  the  arms  and  be  similarly 
fastened;  only  one  pair  need  be  used  at  a  time,  this  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  slip,  due  to  the  incline  of  the  litter. 

Assistant  Surgeon  Curtis  E.  Munn,  U.  S.  A.,  iu  a  report  to  the  Medical  Director  of  the 
Department  of  the  Platte,  dated  April  12,  1876,1  relates  his  experience  in  the  use  of  horse-litters, 
or  "travaux,"  in  an  expedition  against  hostile  Indians  on  the  Powder  Riser: 

"The  command  left  Fetterman  on  the  morning  of  March  1st.     I  was  supplied  with  four  ambulance  wagons  and  one 
supply  wagon.     *     "     Early  on  the  morning  of  March  3d,  at  a  camp  on  the  south  fork  of  the  Cheyenne  River,  about  thirty 


FIG.  22.-Splice  of  the  shaft  of  the  above  litter. 


1  An  expedition  against  hostile  Indians,  known  as  the  "Big  Horn  Expedition,"  was  organized  at  Fort  Fetterman,  Wyoming,  in  February.  1816. 
It  consisted  of  five  companies  of  the  2d  Cavalry,  five  of  the  ad  Cavalry,  and  two  of  the  <lth  Infantry,  under  command  of  Colonel  J.  J.  RKVNOI.ns,  3d 
Cavalry.  Leaving  Fort  Fetterman  March  1,  187G,  the  detachment  readied  Crnzy  Woman's  Fork  on  .March  7th,  and  there  left  the  wagon-train  and  pro- 
ceeded northward  with  a  train  of  :j.jO  pack  animals,  aial  attacked  an  Indian  village  on  Powder  River  March  !7th.  The  troops  resumed  their  stations 
March  lSl,  ls7fi,  having  hist  four  killed  and  six  wounded.  The  march  was  made  in  very  inclement  weather,  the  thermometer  sometimes  falling  below 
21/°  of  the  Fahrenheit  scale. 


JiY    PACK    ANIMALS. 


19 


miles  north  from  l"<-tl<-rrii;in .  ■  small  party  of  Indians  Brad  on  two  herders,  wlio  were  on  duty  near  tlie  troops,  and  wounded 
one  severely.      During  tlie  next    tone  days  lie  was  transported   in   an  ambulance  wagon  eighty-four  miles  to  camp  on  Crazy 

Woman's  Fork,  where  be  was  led  with  the  supply  train,  doing  rsry  well.  On  March  3d,  at  a  oamp  on  the  Powder  River,  Indians 
tired  into  the  group*  standing  by  the  oamp-fires,  and  slightly  wounded  Private  Slavey.  Co,  I.  4th  Infantry.  March  7th.  at 
Crazy  Woman's  Fork,  myself  and  assistants  were  ocoupled  selecting  stores  to  be  carried  on  pack-moles,  and  generally  prepar- 
ing fur  cutting  loose  from  the  Wagon  train,  which  was  t.p  return  to  Old  Fori  Reno,  and  there  camp  until  our  return  from  the 
north.  The  two  companies  of  Infantry  were  left  for  its  protection.  Here  I  left  Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  .1.  Uidgcly,  with 
instructions  to  establish  a  field  hospital,  to  lie  in  readiness  on  onr  return,  as  it  was  highly  probable  there  would  he  many 
wounded  or  sick.  *  *  On  the  evening  of  the  Tth.  the  Cavalry,  accompanied  by  a  'pack-train'  of  about  360  uinlcs,  again 
started  north,  and  marched  all  night.  The  medical  supplies  were  carried  on  two  pack-mules.  They  consisted  of  a  valise  of 
instruments  and  dressings,  chloroform,  etc.  (a  complete  surgical  outfit ),  a  medicine  pannier  well  stocked,  and  two  hlanket  cases, 
each  containing  IS  blankets,  u  rubber  bedoorer,  and  several  buttles  of  bran  ly.  *  *  The  in  iivh  for  days  was  over  mountains, 
to.  and  then  along  the  Tongue  Kiver,  then  across  a  divide  in  the  direction  of  the  Powder  River.  On  March  Kith,  at  two  P.  M., 
having  marched  92  miles  that  day,  the  command  was  halted  and  divided;  two  battalions  and  the  pack-train  to  remain,  and 
three  battalions,  under  Col.  Reynolds,  to  follow  a  trail  by  night  march.  Medical  stores  were  again  divided,  and.  directing 
Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  Stevens  to  remain  with  the  train.  I  started,  with  the  necessities  Indispensable  for  an  engagement  on 
the  horses  of  myself  and  orderly.  These  comprised  an  amputating  knife,  bail-forceps,  artery  forceps,  and  a  pocket -case,  two  pots 
of  beef-SXtract,  a  bottle  of  chloroform,  one  of  brandy,  oakum,  rollers  and  lint,  cigar-box  covers  and  'binders-boards.'  My 
orderly  had  a  field-medicine  BBSS  complete.  *  *  Up  to  this  time,  on  our  march  over  slippery  roads,  but  one  casualty  had 
occurred  of  sufficient  severity  to  incapacitate  any  one  from  horseback  riding  Corporal  Moore,  Co.  D,  3d  Cavalry,  had  been 
rendered  helpless  by  a  fall  of  his  horse  upon  his  body,  and  for  several  days  he  had  been  transported  in  the  rear  of  his  battalion 
on  a  rude  imitation  of  an  Indian  '  travail.'  He  was  left, 
with  several  men  suffering  with  inflammatory  rheumatism. 
in  Bare  of  Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  C.  R.  Stevens.  Tlie 
idea  of  transport  by  the  travail  I  took  with  me  to  the 
field,  and  it  encouraged  me  to  feel  that  my  little  outfit  was 
adequate,  and  if  tomorrow  it  should  he  found  necessary, 
with  poles  from  the  woods  and  cavalry  horses  from  the 
Command,  I  would  surely  be  able  to  transport  the 
wounded  with  the  column.  On  the  morning  of  March 
17th,  after  an  exhausting  night  march,  the  command 
struck  an  Indian  village  on  the  Powder  Kiver  and  fought 
for  several  boars,  the  Indians  making  a  brave  defence. 


As  soon  as  they  were  driven  from  their  village,  it  was 


Flo.  83. — Wounded  soldier  on  a  "  travail.''     [From  a  photograph.1 


aaay  to  construct  tramux  from  the  lodge-poles,  and  upon  one  of  these  curious  conveyances,  which  I  constructed  in  fifteen 
minutes,  l't.  Kgnii,  of  Co.  K,  2d  Cavalry,  who  received  a  penetrating  wound  of  the  abdomen,  was  brought  about  one  hundred 
miles,  over  the  roughest  trails,  to  the  ambulance  station,  which  lie  reached  in  convalescing  condition.  I  had  never  seen,  or 
thought  of,  such  a  method  of  transportation  for  wounded  before,  and  am  naturally  much  pleased  at  the  perfect  success  attending 
their  use.  We  followed  trails  over  mountains  and  ravines  where  it  seemed  impossible  for  a  horse  to  go,  and  although  the 
frequent  exigencies  of  precipitous  side-hills  and  deep  gulches  elicited  much  forcible  and  profane  language,  addressed  to  drivers 
and  mules,  to  secure  safe  conduction,  no  accident 
occurred.  All,  including  two  cases  of  acute  rheu- 
matism, were  brought  safely.  To  keep  up  with 
the  column  frequently  necessitated  the  trot  or 
gallop,  and  strangely  enough  the  rheumatic  cases 
Seemed  to  improve  while  undergoing  this  harsh 
treatment,  I  would  recommend  the  employment 
of  this  mode  of  transportation  whenever  troops 
are  obliged  to  leave  wagon-roads.  A  few  well- 
seasoned  poles  about  l(i  feet  long  should  be  care- 
fully prepared,  and  provided  as  part  of  the  outfit. 
They  can  be  dragged  along  in  bundles  behind  two 
or  three  packed  mules,  until  a  drag  should  be 
needed.  Several  of  the  animals  in  the  train  should  be  provided  with  collars  and  haines,  with  short  chains  and  hooks  to  attach 
to  rings  in  the  poles.  A  common  girth  will  support  the  poles  over  any  saddle,  and  two  lariats  will  make  the  cradle  behind  the 
mule  or  horse,  and  serve  to  bind  the  patient  securely  upon  the  apparatus.  A  patient  can  be  more  comfortably  transported  over 
a  rough  country  in  this  way  than  by  the  best  ambulance,  but  the  poles  must  be  well-Seasoned  and  of  elastic  material,  as  ash, 
lance-wood,  or  hickory.     '  The  command  reached  the  site  of  old  Fort   lteno  on  the  evening  of  March  21st ;  a  cold  rain- 

storm during  the  afternoon  completed  a  long  sum  total  of  discomfort.  My  notes  say  that  we  marched  10  hours,  over  the  worst 
trails  yet  traversed.  I  had  cheered  my  patients  with  repeated  statements  about  the  comforts  prepared  for  them  at  camp  at 
Reno.     I  found  only  the  hospital  tent  pitched,  its  interior  wet.  no  fire  in  or  about  it.''     •     •     • 

■Dr.  Ml  XX  indicated,  on  IBS  photographic  print  from  which  the  cut  is  copied:  "This  is  tlie  picture  of  a  ixiorly  contrived  'travail.'  It  should  lie 
drawn  by  two  mules,  and  ttie  poles  should  Im>  elastic.     When  a  siivmii  is  .  i.-ssed.  men  take  up  the  ends  of  the  poles  and  carry  them  across." 

*  Assistant  BunjSOB  Ml  XX.  in  transmitting  the  photograph  copied  uhove,  remarks:  "  The  litter  with  two !es,  long  in  use,  1  believe  to  be  inferior 

to  the  travail.     When  the  nnimals  move  at  an  uneven  pace,  the  result  is  disastrous  to  the  harness  uod  to  the  patient." 


Flu.  24. — Wounded  soldier  conveyed  on  a  douhle  miilr-litter.     [From  a  photograph.*) 


20 


TRANSPORT   OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 


In  connection  with  his  report  of  sick  and  wounded  for  Juue,  1876,  in  relating  the  circumstances 
of  an  engagement  with  hostile  Indians1  at  Rosebud  Creek,  Montana,  June  17,  1876,  Assistant 
Surgeon  A.  Hartsuff,  U.  S.  A.,  made  the  following  references  to  the  conveyance  of  wounded  by 
horse-litters  and  "  travois* : 

"  The  fight  commenced  by  a  sharp  attack  from  the  hostile  Indians,  who  evidently  thought  to  surprise  us.  They  were 
all  well  mounted  and  well  armed,  and  seemed  to  have  an  abundance  of  ammunition.  Their  ponies  carried  them  swiftly  over 
ground  that  was  difficult  for  us  to  get  over  at  all,  and  they  did  all  their  firing  from  their  horses,  which  we  were  unable  to  do. 
The  attack  was  promptly  met,  both  by  our  troops  and  our  friendly  Indians ;  and  the  Sioux  were  driven  back,  from  hill  to  bill 
and  crag  to  crag,  the  ground  being  a  succession  of  sharp  hills,  crags,  etc.  Soon  we  discovered  great  numbers  of  the 
enemy  on  our  flanks.  Evidently  they  were  trying  to  surround  us,  and  to  get  to  our  rear,  with  a  view  of  capturing  our 
camp,  transportation,  stock,  etc.  For  they  presumed  that  we  had  a  base ;  but,  what  was  their  surprise,  when  they  got  to  the 
ground  where  they  first  found  us,  to  find  we  had  no  rear !  Our  headquarters,  base,  and  all,  were  in  the  saddle !  Every  officer 
and  man  was  mounted,  and  all  carried  their  rations  and  ammunition  upon  their  persons,  our  only  extra  transportation  being 
two  pack-mules,  one  of  which  carried  medical  supplies,  and  the  other  tent-flies,  shovels,  picks,  axes,  etc.  After  the  enemy, 
by  great  exertion  of  hard  riding,  had  succeeded  in  finding  our  supposed  base,  and  finding  nothing,  their  next  anxiety  and  hard 
work  was  to  get  back  to  their  main  column.  Having  no  base,  and  being  thus  entirely  surrounded,  and  the  position  of  all  the 
troops  constantly  changing,  it  was  necessary  that  the  medical  officers  of  the  command  should  be  very  active  and  vigilant  to 

prevent  any  of  our  wound- 
ed falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  enemy.  The  wounded 
were  all  collected  together 
and  their  wounds  hastily 
and  rudely  dressed,  neither 
time  nor  circumstances  al- 
lowing us  to  give  them  the 
necessary  care  and  atten- 
tion. Frequently,  during 
the  fight,  we  had  to  move 
the  wounded  to  safer  posi- 
tions. Not  a  drop  of  water 
could  be  obtained  during 
the  day,  for  we  were  on 
the  hills,  and  the  nearest 
water,  Rosebud,  a  miser- 
able little  stream,  two  miles  away.  At  about  one  o'clock  P.  M.  the  firing  had  nearly  all  ceased,  the  Indians  having  retreated, 
through  deep  and  narow  canons,  down  the  Rosebud.  It  was  about  half-past  six  o'clock  when  the  command  reached  the  Rosebud 
River.  Owing  to  the  great  heat  of  the  day,  no  shelter,  and  no  water,  and  very  considerable  loss  of  blood,  many  of  the  wounded 
were  much  exhausted.  Their  wounds  were  all  dressed  as  speedily  as  possible,  and  all  were  made  as  comfortable  as  our  limited 
means  would  allow ;  but  our  work  then  was  not  done,  for  the  order  was  to  return  to  the  wagon  train,  and  to  march  early  in 
the  morning ;  the  time  of  marching  to  depend  on  time  when  the  wounded  could  be  moved.     Mr.  Moore  and  his  packers  gave 

us  the  necessary  assistance;  and,  by  working 
the  greater  portion  of  the  night,  one  hone-litter 
and  five  travois  were  made.  Captain  G.  V. 
Henry,  3d  Cavalry,  was  placed  on  the  litter 
(FlG.  25),  and  five  of  the  wounded  soldiers  were 
placed  on  the  travois  (FlG.  26);  the  remainder 
of  the  wounded  [thirteen  in  number]  rode  their 
horses.  At  sunrise  all  was  ready,  and  we  at 
once  moved  out.  I  felt  very  considerable  in- 
terest in  this  (to  me)  new  mode  of  transport- 
ation of  the  wounded,  and  I  carefully  watched 
the  behavior  of  the  litter  and  travois.  I 
soon  discovered,  however,  that  the  litter  was 
much  better  in  all  respects  than  the  travois,  except, 
perhaps,  over  comjtaratively  smooth  ground  ;  much 
of  our  route  was  very  rocky  anil  broken,  the  hills  were  very  steep  and  canons  deep.  Occasionally  a  little  stream  and  a  narrow 
trail  on  Bteep  mountain  sides.  Over  such  a  country,  the  travois  is  very  troublesome  and  uncomfortable;  so  much  so  did  they 
prove  to  us,  that  at  night,  after  the  first  march,  we  threw  away  all  of  them,  and  made  litters  in  their  stead.  With  these,  we 
bad  no  trouble;  could  move  as  fast  as  the  columns  could  move  over  mountain  sides,  through  canons,  over  rocks,  stones,  and 

'An  expedition  against  hostile  Sioux  and  other  Indians,  known  as  the  "Big  Horn  and  Yellowstone  Expedition,"  started  June  1,  1870,  from 
Buffalo  Wallow,  Wyoming  Territory,  and  reaching  Kosebud  Creek,  in  Montana,  Juno  17th,  was  attacked  by  a  force  of  Indians  estimated  at  fifteen 
hundred  in  number.  The  detachments  of  United  States  troopB  consisted  of  ten  companies  of  the  3d  Cavalry,  five  of  the  2d  Cavalry,  three  of  the  9th 
Infantry,  and  two  of  the  4th  Infantry,  twenty  packers,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  friendly  Crow  and  Creek  Indians,  making  an  aggregate  of  twelve 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  commanded  by  Brigadier-General  GEORGE  CEOOK.  In  the  affair  of  the  Rosebud  the  detachment  lost  nine  killed  and  nineteen 
wouiidt-d. 


Pig.  25. — Extemporized  horse-litter.    [From  a  drawing  by  Dr.  Hartsuff.] 


Fig.  26.— Extemporized  Mule"  travois."    [From  a  drawing  by  Dr.  Hartsuff.) 


BY    PACK   ANIMALS. 


21 


Flo.  27.— Splint  of  willow-twigs  united  by 
buckskin  thongs,  [from  a  drawing  by  Dr 
Hartsuff.) 


even  through  deep  rivers.     We  crossed  the  Tongue  River,  three  or  four  feet  deep,  without  trouble.     The  wounded  occupants  of' 
the  litter*  thought  them  very  comfortable;  and  even  when  we  readied  the  ambulance-train,  some  of  the  wounded  did  not  want 
to  give  up  their  litters  for  the  ambulance  wagons.     The  horse-litter  is  quite  as  quickly  and  easily  constructed  as  the  travois  ; 
can  be  used  wherever  the;  travois  can  be  used,  and  in  many  places  where  the  latter  is  entirely  useless.     The  travois  are  exten- 
sively used  by  all  tribes  of  Indians  of  this  country;   but  they  have,  I  believe,  no  knowledge  of  the  horse-litter.     For  the 
information  of  those  who  may  not  be  familiar  with  the  appearance  and  construction  of 
the  means  of  transportation  to  which  I  have  referred,  I  insert  the  preceding  sketches 
(Fl08.  25,  26).     I  also  send  a  sketch  of  a  splint  much  used  by  the  Indians  (Fig.  27) : 
It  is  quickly  made,  of  small  willows,  peeled,  and  woven  or  tied  together  by  buckskin- 
strings.     They  may  be  of  any  length,  are  very  pliable  and  easily  fitted  to  any  shape 
or  condition.     The  splint  is  quickly  applied,  pressure  is  uniform,  and,  when  wrapped 
around  a  fractured  extremity  and  tied  with  strings  or  buckled  with  straps,  it  behaves 
better  than  any  other  form  of  dressing.     Our  killed  were  all  buried  on  the  field,  and 
as  the  Indians  did  not  get  at  their  dead  bodies,  none  of  them  were  scalped  or  mutilated. 
Our  Indians,  Crows  and  Snakes,  took  thirteen  Sioux  scalps,  and  otherwise  mutilated 
the  bodies  of  the  dead  Sioux.     Assistant  Surgeon  J.  1[.  l'at/.ki  and  Acting  Assistant 
Surgeon  C.  R.  Stephen*  were  my  assistants  ill  the  above-named  engagements  and  on 
the  field,  en  route,  and  at  all  times  and  places  they  were  active  and  efficient  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  " 

Assistant  Surgeon  J.  W.  Williams  lias  supplemented  his  report  of  the  killed  and  wounded  at 
the  disastrous  engagement  at  the  Little  Big  Horn,1  June  25,  1876,  with  the  following  remarks  on 
transport  by  horse-litters: 

"The  ordinary  Teepe  poles,  with  which  the  Indians  pitch  their  tents  when  in  villages,  are  also  used  in  constructing  the 
travois.  The  Dakota  and  Montana  Sioux,  who  use  mountain-pine  or  ash  pole*,  select  straight,  well-proportioned  saplings  of  those 
woods,  trim  them  down  to  the  proper  size  and  taper,  and  then  lay  them  aside  to  season.  The  dressed  poles  are  about  thirty  feet 
long,  two  to  two  and  a  half  inches  at  the  butt,  and  one  and  a  half  inches  at  the  other  extremity.  The  oval  couch  rim  is  made 
exclusively  of  ash,  bent  into  the  desired  shape  while  the  wood  is  green.  A  network  of  raw  hide  is  afterward  lashed  to  the  rim 
and  completes  the  bed.  The  bed  is  three  and  a  half  to  four  feet  in  its  transverse,  and  two  and  a  half  to  three  feet  in  its  con- 
jugate diameter.  When  a  travois  is  to  be  rigged,  two  or  three  Teepe  poles,  according  to  size  and  strength,  are  selected  for  each 
shaft  and  lashed  to- 
gether, butts  to  butts, 
with  raw-bide.  The 
system  is  then  lashed 
to  the  pack-saddle 
with  the  same  mate- 
rial, the  small  ends  of 
the  poles  trailing  on 
the  ground.  The  In- 
dians sometimes  use 
a  breaststrap  as  an 
additional  stay.  The 
bed.  with  the  longer 
diameter  laid  trans- 
versely, is  next  se- 
cured to  the  shafts 
one  foot  in  rear  of 
the  horse,  about  six 
inches  of  each  end  of 
the  bed  being  allowed 
to  overlap  the  shafts. 
A  blanket,  piece  of 
canvas,  or  buffalo  robe 
lashed  to  the  lower 
half  of  the   oval  rim 

of  the  bed  completes  the  outfit.  When  a  patient  is  to  be  carried,  he  is  laid  transversely  on  the  bed,  partly  reclining  on  the  side, 
with  knees  slightly  drawn  up,  and  head  and  shoulders  bent  forward  and  secured  to  the  bed  by  drawing  the  blanket  up  over  him 
anil  lashing  it  to  the  upper  pari  of  the  rim.  I  Bade  use  of  ten  of  those -travoises  to  transport  the  wounded  from  the  battle-field 
of  the  Little  Big  Horn,  June1  88  and  26,  l^Tti,  to  the  bout  at  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Horn.  The  distance  was  thirty  miles;  time  of 
march,  night  ;  the  country  to  be  traversed  rough  and  broken;  the  Little  Big  Horn,  which  crossed  our  line  of  inarch  in  its 
windings  toward  the  Big  Horn,  had  to  lie  forded  six  times  — obstacles  enough  to  test  the  merits  of  the  travois  as  a  carrier  of 
wounded  ;  yet,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  in  the  way,  the  wounded  were  transported  to  the  boat  without  accident  or  per- 
sonal inconvenience  and  discomfort  of  any  kind.     I  was  particularly  pleased  with  the  results  of  this  trial,  and  resolved  to  make 

1  Brigadier-General  A.  II.  TElMiY,  with  a  force  of  cavalry  and  infantry  numbering  about  fifteen  hundred  men,  made  an  expedition  into  thee  Sioux 
country  in  June,  ]87o.  On  June  25th,  the  udvanee,  consisting  of  eleven  companies  of  the  7th  Cavalry,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  G.  A.  Ct'STKK  and 
Major  M.  A.  Hf.no,  encountered  the  Indians  at  the  "Utile  Big  Horn,''  and  lost  15  officers,  tin  acting  assistant  surgeon,  and  232  men  killed,  and  59  ma 
wounded.—  See  Annual  ttrport  of  the  Surgeim  General,  U.  8.  A.,  1876,  p.  13. 


Pig.  28.— Dakota  Indian  litter.     [From  a  drawing  by  Dr.  J.  W.  WILLIAMS,  V.  S.  A.] 


22 


TRANSPORT    OF    SICK   AND    WOUNDED 


Fig.  29.— Notched 
three-inch  timber. 


Fie  30.— Notched 
timber  with  rope. 


a  more  extended  trial  of  the  travois  should  future  occasion  offer.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  travois  is  well  adapted  for  trans- 
porting wounded  over  a  rough  country;  that  it  is  quite  as  safe  and  free  from  jar  as  the  mule-litter,  also  resorted  to  on  the  same 
occasion;  and  that  it  is  by  far  more  economical  than  the  latter  in  the  number  of  attendants  and  animals  which  it  requires.1  In 
case  of  an  Indian  war,  when  villages  are  attacked  and  captured,  there  never  will  be  any  difficulty  of  obtaining  material  for 
building  the  travois  ;  under  different  circumstances  they  will  have  to  be  prepared  beforehand.  My  idea  was  to  prepare  twenty- 
five  travoises  and  use' them  as  part  of  the  pack-train  until  needed  for  transporting  wounded.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Indians 
use  the  travois  for  carrying  all  sorts  of  baggage,  and  that  it  is  no  impediment  to  rapid  marching,  and  that,  further,  in  case  of 
battle,  their  wounded  are  quite  as  speedily  removed  from  the  field  by  the  same  means.'' 

Brigadier-General  A.  H.  Terry  is  of  opinion  that  the  following  memorandum,  by  Lieutenant 
G.  C.  Doaue,  2d  Cavalry,  for  the  construction  of  two-horse  litters,  will  "be  of  great  value  to  at 
least  every  medical  officer  of  the  army":2 

Camp  on  Yellowstone  River,  July  11,  1876.  To  the  Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Department  of  Dakota. 
{Through  official  channels.)  Sir:  In  compliance  with  a  verbal  request,  I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  following  memorandum 
of  specifications  for  the  construction  of  horse  or  mule  litters  for  the  transportation  of  wounded  men  in  the  field:  Cut  two  poles 
sixteen  feet  long.  These  should  be  of  green  timber,  three  inches  in  diameter  at  small  ends  after  being  barked ; 
four  inches  back  from  each  end,  cut  a  notch  (FIG.  29)  all  around  and  tie  in  a  loop  of  strong 
rope  or  raw-hide  (Fig.  30);  the  loop  to  be  about  four  inches  aperature.  Now  lay  the  poles 
parallel  and  with  the  small  end  to  the  front,  about  three  feet  apart.  For  cross-bars  take 
two  pieces  of  pole,  same  size  as  above,  and  each  about  four  feet  long;  cut  notches  about 
two-thirds  of  the  way  through  one  of  them,  three  feet  two  inches  apart,  to  fit  down  on  the 
two  poles  at  right  angles;  cut  with  a  square  shoulder  to  resist  pressure  inward  (Fig.  31).  Lay  off  from  the  small  end  of  each 
parallel  a  distance  of  four  feet  four  inches  and  mark,  then  tie  in  the  notches  downward  firmly  upon  these  points.  Cut  the  other 
cross-bar  in  the  same  way,  but  have  the  notches  three  feet  six  inches  apart.  Lay  off  from 
the  large  ends  of  the  parallel  bars  a  distance  of  four  feet  eight  inches,  and  tie  down  at 
these  points  the  rear  bar  (FlG.  32)  firmly  as  before;  this  gives  a  bed  seven  feet  long,  three 
feet  two  inches  wide  at  one  end  and  three  feet  six  inches  at  the  other,  exclusive  of  thick- 
ness of  parallel  bars.    Now  take  a  lariat  or  raw-hide  thong  and  cord  the  bed-space  in  the  following  manner  (FlG.  32):   Tie  one  end 

at  a  corner  over  a  lashing  of  a  cross-bar 
notch,  pass  the  rope  over  the  opposite 
parallel  bar  nine  inches  advanced  from 
where  it  is  lashed  to  the  cross-bar.  The 
rope  comes  under  the  bar  behind  the 
first  cord  and  back  over  it,  making  a 
similar  turn  over  and  under  the  other  par- 
allel bar  eighteen  inches  from  the  point 
of  starting;  then  back,  gaining  eighteen 
inches  each  time,  until  it  reaches  and 
passes  over  an  intersection  of  the  cross-bar  at  the  other  end  of  the  bed;  then  pass  the  rope  under  both  parallels  and  back  over 
the  opposite  end  of  the  bar,  and  cord  back  to  the  front  end  as  before,  dividing  each  space  of  eighteen  inches,  so  that  when  finished 
the  spaces  will  be  nine  inches  between  bearings  approximately;  the  object  of  a  second  cording  is  to  counterbalance  the  strain  of 
the  first,  which  would  tend  to  throw  one  parallel  forward  and  the  other  to  the  rear;  draw  the  cords  tightly.  The  bed  is  now 
complete.  To  fasten  the  litter  on  the  mule,  take  for  each  end  of  the  litter  a  lariat  and  coil  it  in  loops  long  enough  to  reach  over 
the  saddle-seat  and  half  way  down  on  each  side  of  the  body  of  the  animal.  Fasten  the  ends  in  a  tie  around  the  middle  of  the  coil ; 
then  slip  the  loops  of  the  coiled  lariat  at  end  through  the  small  loops  tied  at  the  end  of  the  bars,  and  over  the  ends  of  the  bars, 
slipping  back  into  the  notches  ;  the  ends  of  the  bars  will  then  hang  in  the  ends  of  the  lariat  coil  suspended.  Now  fasten  into 
the  small  loop  at  each  end  of  each  bar  a  piece  of  rope  about  four  feet  long,  and  around  each  right-hand,  or  off-side  notch,  one 
end  of  another  cord  long  enough  for  a  belly-band  for  the  mule.  The  litter  is  now  complete.  To  put  in  the  mules :  lead  up  the 
front  mule  first,  the  smaller  of  the  two;  loose  the  lariat  loops  from  one  end  of  the  shafts;  back  the  mule  between  them,  pass 

1  Surgeon  GeneralT.  LONOMO  RE  remarks  (  Op.  cit.,  Treatise  on  Transport,  etc.,  p.  203):  "Two-horse  litters  seem  to  be  conveyances  of  very  doubtful 
expediency,  if  expedient  at  all,  under  any  circumstances.  It  is  a  very  unprofitable  expenditure  of  labor  for  two  horses  to  be  devoted  to  the  carriage  of 
one  sick  man,  when  the  same  purpose  can  be  more  economically  accomplished  by  other  means.  The  comparatively  little  width  of  space  occupied  by 
such  litters  give  them  some  advantage  in  moving  along  narrow  ways  through  a  partially  cleared  country,  but  they  cannot  travel  along  narrow  tracks 
presenting  short  turns,  such  as  winding  paths  with  steep  acclivities  on  one  side,  which  are  so  frequently  met  with  in  hilly  districts.  The  conveyance  is 
too  long  anil  unyielding  for  such  movement.  Again,  it  is  unsuited  for  any  but  tolerably  level  roads.  It  is  destitute  of  any  provision  for  preserving  its 
level  in  case  of  the  landtag  horse  elevating  the  fore  part  of  the  long  poles,  while  the  hinder  part  is  depressed,  or  vice  versa,  so  that  a  road  presenting 
either  a  steep  ascent  or  descent  would  cause  great  inconvenience  to  any  invalid  in  the  litter  during  the  act  of  transportation." 

■2  "IlEAnyUAitTEits  Dki'aktmhxt  of  Dakota.  Saint  Paul,  Minnesota,  December  7,  1876.  To  the  Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Head- 
quarters Military  Division  of  the  Missouri,  Chicago,  Illinois.  Sir  :  After  the  action  of  the  25th  of  June  last,  the  wounded  men  of  the  7th  Cavalry  were 
carried  to  the  Dig  Horn  River  in  mule-litters  constructed  by  1st  Lieutenant  O.  0.  Doane,  2d  Cavalry.  These  litters  answered  their  purpose  admirably, 
and  I  think  that  a  knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which  they  were  constructed  would  be  of  great  value  to  at  least  every  medical  officer  of  the  army.  At 
my  request  Lieutenant  Doane  has  prepared  a  detailed  rejMirt  upon  the  method  of  construction  used  by  him.  I  now  have  the  honor  to  forward  a  copy  of 
it,  and  I  suggest  that  it  be  submitted  to  the  Surgeon  General  of  the  Army.  In  this  connection  I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Lieutenant  General 
commanding  the  division  to  the  invaluable  services  rendered  by  Lieutenant  Doane.  I  believe  that  1  speak  the  sentiments  of  every  officer  and  soldier  who 
served  under  me  in  the  field  during  the  campaign  of  last  summer,  when  I  say  that  I  feel  the  most  hearty  admiration  for  the  zeal,  skill,  and  energy 
displayed  by  this  accomplished  gentleman  and  soldier.  1  Bin,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant,  Anrui'.l)  II.  TKKKV,  Brigadier  General, 
(-Miiunaiiding.'' — [Forvjarded  by  the  Lieutenant  General  to  the  Adjutant  General  and  referred  by  the  latter  to  the  Surgeon  General.] 


BY    PACK     ANIMALS.  23 

tlit'  lariat  loop  over  tin*  teal  of  tin*  saiMIc.  lifting  both   fthaftl  e<|iiulh";  slip  the  detached  lariat  loop  to  its  place  and  drop  the 

shaft**  ho  thai  they  will  bang  equally;  then  tie  eaofa  short  rope  at  (be  side  into  (be  pommel-ban  of  tin*  pack-saddle  so  as  to  keep 

the  ends  of  tin*  ban  at  an  equal  elevation.  Tie  the  rope  for  the  hellv-hand  OH  the  near  side  M  on  the  opposite,  and  let  the  ninle 
be  led  a  short  distance,  with  the  litter  dragging,  to  sec  it*  he  is  gentle.  Put  in  the  rear  mule  the  same  way  except  that  lie  is  h-d 
into  the  shafts,  and  the  short  ropes  are  tied  into  the  cantle-hars  of  his  saddle  and  his  halter-strap  fastened  to  the  rear  har  of  the 
bed,  abort  enough,  so  that  he  cannot  L'et  his  bead  down  under  it.  If  the  mules  make  trouhle  at  all,  it  will  he  when  first  hilehed 
up,  and  many  which  act  hadly  at  first  will  quiet  down  when  they  find  they  cannot  break  loose.  They  should  he  led  around 
with  the  litter  empty  (care  being  taken  to  keep  the  front  mule  straight  in  the  shaft's)  to  accustom  them  to  the  work.  To  turn 
the  litter,  work  the  mules  in  opposite  directions,  the  front  one  to  the  tight,  and  the  rear  one  to  the  left,  or  vice  versa.  To  go 
down  hill,  hold  hack  on  the  rear  mule  ;  to  go  up  hill,  whip  up  the  rear  mule  ;  always  start  the  rear  mule  first.  On  the  road,  a 
man  should  lead  or  ride  each  mule  ;  also  a  man  should  walk  or  ride  on  each  side  of  the  litter  to  steady  it  or  refasten  ropes  when 
required.  Such  litters  will  keep  up  with  the  cavalry  column  on  the  march  if  properly  managed.  The  litter  should  be  halted 
as  seldom  as  possihle.  If  one  gets  out  of  Order  it  should  he  passed  by  the  others  if  practicable,  ami  closed  up  when  fixed.  The 
rear  mule  should  always  he  unhitched  first.  Everything  ahout  the  fastenings  must  be  strong  enough,  so  that  if  the  mules  pull 
in  oppoMte  directions  they  cannot  break  either  the  poles  or  the  ropes.  No  brittle  timher  should  he  used  that  may  weigh  as 
much  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  without  detriment.  The  litters  can  he  carried  on  cavalry  horses  with  cavalry  saddles  as 
well  as  on  mules,  if  the  horses  are  gentle.  I  have  had  occasion  to  use  these  litters:  one.  after  the  Piegan  affair  in  January, 
l-?i»;  one,  in  the  summer  of  L875,  to  bring  Colonel  K.  15.  Marcy.  Inspector  General,  U.  S.  A.,  from  the  Geysers  to  the  Great 
Falls  in  the  National  Park;1  and  nineteen  on  June  '27  to  30,  1876)  transporting  wounded  men  of  General  Custer's  command,  in 
the  Little  Pig  Horn  Valley,  Montana  Territory.     Very  respectfully,  your  ohedient  servant,  G.  C.  DOANE,  1st  Lieut.  Sid  Cavalry. 

A  few  weeks  after  these  experiences  in  the  command  of  General  Terry,2  Surgeon  B.  A. 
Clements,  U.  S.  Adjoined  the  co-operating  column  under  General  Crook,  as  Medical  Director,  and, 
in  December,  1876,  made  an  elaborate  report  on  tbe  operations  of  tbe  medical  department  in  the 
conjoined  commands,  a  report3  including  many  interesting  observations  on  sick-transport,  especially 
after  the  engagement  at  Slim  Buttes,  September  9,  1876.  As  it  was  hardly  practicable  to  extract 
these  remarks  from  the  context  without  injustice  to  the  narrative,  at  tbe  request  of  Assistant 

'  In  General  W.  K.  STROXn'g  work,  entitled  A  Trip  to  the  YtUowxtone.  Xational  Park,  4to  (illustrated),  Washington,  1876,  it  is  stated  (p.  75)  that 
General  K.  B.  Makcy,  ie0UM|WIJl1iig  the  BeeiettUJ  of  War  in  a  visit  to  the  Geysers,  fell  ill  August  3,  1875,  and  could  not  mount  his  horse,  when  Lien* 
tenant  Gi/stavts  ('.  DOAKB,  '-M  Cavalry,  constructed  for  him  a  litter  to  be  carried  by  two  puck-mules.  The  following1  day  the  General  rode  fifteen 
miles  an  the  litter,  and  far  five  days  subsequently  occupied  it  occasionally  when  horseback  riding  was  too  fatiguing.  General  Stiiong  gives  the  follow- 
ing description  of  this  litter :  "Two  poles,  eighteen  feet  long  and  four  inches  in  diameter,  were  lushed  together  in  the  centre,  for  the  distance  of  seven 
feet,  by  weaving  a  network  at  peat -cord  across,  and  forming  a  good,  strong  bed  of  sufficient  width  to  admit  a  mule  between  the  poles  in  front  and  one 
behind.  The  mules  are  to  be  fastened  to  this  litter  in  precisely  the  same  manner  that  a  horse  would  be  attaehed  to  the  shafts  of  a  buggy,  the  shafts  of 
the  litter  Mag  strongly  fastened  to  pack-saddles  by  means  of  strips.  I'pon  tbe  bed  of  the  litter  a  buffalo  robe  was  spread,  and  upon  this  a  mattress  was 
placed,  with  plenty  of  blankets  and  ■  pillow.  Two  of  the  most  gentle  and  surest-footed  mules  were  selected  and  hitched  in,  with  a  reliable  man  on  the 
beck  of  each." 

*  Assistant  Surgeon  J.  W.  Williams,  chief  medical  officer  of  General  Tkrry'h  command,  furnished,  January  9, 1877,  the  following  memorandum 
of  the  arrangements  made  for  the  removal  of  the  wounded  after  the  lamentable  affair  of  the  Little  Big  Horn :  "On  the  arrival  of  the  infantry  OoUma 
under  Colonel  JOHN  GlHHOX,  7th  Infantry,  on  June  86th,  it  was  imperative  that  fifty -nine  wounded  men  should  1m-  tran^x.rted  to  the  continence  of  the 
Little  Big  Horn  with  the  Big  Horn,  a  distance  of  about  thirty  miles,  where  they  Maid  be  placed  on  the  transport  steamer  Far  West.  It  was  of  urgency 
that  they  should  1m>  removed  without  delay  from  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  battle-field,  made  intolerable  by  the  unburied  bodies  of  men  and  boHMa 
General  Giimion  Hgywtod  transmutation  by  hand-stretchers ;  Dr.  WILLIAMS  advised  the  construction  of  travois ;  Lieutenant  G.  A.  DoaXE  advocuted 
the  use  of  two-mule  litters.  Specimens  of  the  three  varieties  of  conveyance  were  made  the  next  day,  June  27th,  and  were  used  in  moving  the  wounded 
to  a  camp  almut  five  miles  down,  on  the  Little  Big  Horn.  The  hand  litters  proved  useless,  for  the  men  employed  as  bearers  broke  down,  and  sufficient 
relays  could  not  be  had.  The  travois  worked  well.  The  double-mule  litters  were  ineffective,  except  for  luggage,  for  the  animals  were  so  restive  that 
the  woaeaed  feared  to  be  placed  on  the  litters.  The  next  day,  June  28th,  new  trials  were  made  with  the  mule-litters  and  travois,  selecting  animals  from 
General  UI'BTKR'h  pack-train,  in  which  the  mules,  recently  subjected  to  long  and  fatiguing  marches,  were  more  docile  and  tractable.  After  these  exper- 
iments, on  . I une  99th,  General  Guuiu.v  directed  the  construction  of  additional  two-mule  litters  and  travois.  and,  as  fast  as  they  were  finished,  the  mules 
were  exercised  in  marching  with  them.  On  June  30th,  19  of  the  more  severely  wounded  were  placed  on  the  two-mule  litters,  10  on  travois,  and  30  of  the 
less  severely  wounded  on  lmrsel>aek.  Kadi  mule-litter  was  attended  by  4  men,  one  leading  the  forward  mule,  one  the  rear  mule,  while  one  walked  on 
either  side  of  the  litter  to  steady  the  swaying  movement  of  the  side  poles.  Among  the  gravely  wounded  on  the  mule-litters  was  one  amputated  at  the 
place  of  election  in  the  leg,  nnother  with  a  shot  perforation  of  the  knee  joint,  and  4  with  i>enetrating  wounds  of  the  chest  or  abdomen.  On  nearing  the 
bank  of  the  Big  Ben,  the  leading  mule  of  the  litter  ttearing  the  amputated  man  knelt  down  and  the  patient  rolled  off,  but  was,  fortunately,  uninjured. 
Dr.  Williams  obsei  v>  d  that  much  vigilance  was  requisite  on  the  part  of  men  leading  the  mules,  to  prevent  serious  accidents  of  this  description.  The 
travois.  on  which  the  wounded  were  carried  transversely  to  the  long  side  poles  fsee  Fig.  28,  p.  21),  required  the  service  of  but  a  single  attendant ;  the  10 
less  seriously  wounded  on  carried  on  these  conveyances  all  stated  that  they  found  this  mode  of  transport  easy  and  comfortable. 

■The  "  Big  Hum  and  Yellowstone  Kxjwditioii."  reinforced  after  the  affair  of  the  Rosebud,  leaving  its  wagon-train  and  disabled  men  at  Goose 
Creek,  near  the  Big  Horn  Mountains,  resumed  the  offensive,  August  5,  1876,  the  command  consisting  of  "about  1,500  cavalry,  450  infantry,  45  white 
volunteers,  and  M0  Snake  and  I'te  Indians."  an  aggregate  of  2,235  rank  and  file.  A  train  of  240  pack-mules  carried  the  supplies  2  mules  being  assigned 
for  medical  and  hospital  stores  and  appliances.  A  medicine  chest,  additional  quantities  of  essential  medicines,  plaster,  and  surgical  dressings,  and  20 
6am  M  sackiiig-lwittnins  faff  litters,  were  curried  cm  the  mules.  Then  were  six  medical  officers,  and  each  carried  instruments  and  dressings  on  his  horse. 
On  August  10th,  a  junction  was  effected  with  the  troops  under  Brigadier  General  Tkkky.  The  combined  forces  marched  to  the  conflueuce  of  the  Pow- 
der Biver  with  the  Yellowstone,  arriving  August  17th.  Here  34  disabled  men  were  transferred  to  the  steamer  Far  West.  Marching  northward,  many  of 
the  men  fell  nick  from  the  use  of  alkaline  water  and  exposure  to  rain  and  hailstorms,  and  five  of  the  men  were  transported  on  two-mule  Utters.  After 
long  and  fatiguing  liHWlllff  0B  ScptcmUr  Ptfa  an  Indian  village  at  Slim  Buttes  was  attacked  and  captured.  There  were  one  man  killed,  an  officer,  and 
18  men  wounded,  in  this  affair.  Litters  were  constructed  from  the  teepe  poles,  and  the  march  was  continued  with  15  mule-litters  in  the  ambulance-train. 
Approaching  the  Black  Hills,  the  litter-mub?s  struggled  with  difficulty  through  the  tenacious  mud,  and  some  of  them  fell  in  crossing  streams  and 
ravines;  but  none  of  the  occupants  of  the  litters  received  injury.  After  a  novi  exhausting  march,  the  column  reached  the  Belle  Fourche  and  was 
joined  by  a  wagon-train.  Among  the  wounded  who  wen-  carried  for  many  days  in  mule-litters,  in  the  most  inclement  weather,  and  over  most  difficult 
country,  was  one  with  a  sh.»t  fracture  .  f  the  femur  put  up  in  a  plaster  bandage,  and  an  officer  amputated  at  the  place  of  election  in  the  leg. 


24  TRANSPORT    OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 

Surgeon-General  C.  H.  Crane,  U.  S.  A.,  Surgeon  Clements  forwarded  from  Fort  Saunders,  Wyo- 
ming, January  15,  1877,  the  following  memorandum  on  the  construction  and  management  of 
horse  or  mule-litters: 

"  Litters  drawn  by  mules  or  horses  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  last  resort  for  the  transportation  or  wounded  men.  On 
the  contrary,  they  are  superior  to  any  other  mode  of  land  transportation  for  certain  classes  of  wounds.  These  wounds  are, 
especially,  gunshot  fractures  of  the  bones  of  the  lower  extremity  and,  particularly,  of  the  femur.  Mules  are  preferable  to  horses, 
being  smaller,  more  sure-footed,  and  having  a  shorter  step.  Ordinarily,  and  especially  in  Indian  warfare,  the  mules  will  be 
selected  from  the  pack-train ;  but  in  some  cases  it  may  be  best  to  select  them  for  this  special  purpose  alone  before  leaving  the 
supply  depot.  When  not  in  actual  use,  the  mules  are  left  with  the  pack-train  in  charge  of  the  packers.  The  packers  in 
charge  of  the  litter-mules  assist  in  hitching  up  and  unhitching,  and  instruct  the  men  in  the  management  of  the  mules,  tying 
knots,  etc.,  and  accompany  the  litters  on  the  inarch.  The  mules  selected  for  each  litter  should  have  unequal  steps,  other- 
wise a  swaying  motion  is  given  to  the  litter.  The  ordinary  pack-saddle,  as  distinguished  from  the  Mexican  or  Californian 
' aparejo,'  should  be  used.  A  litter  consists  of  two  poles  about  four  inches  in  diameter  and  eighteen  feet  long;  two  stretcher- 
bars  or  poles,  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter  and  three  feet  long;  and  a  canvas  bottom,  five  and  a  half  feet  long  and  two 
and  a  half  feet  broad,  with  eyelet-holes  at  sides  and  ends,  which  are  to  be  lashed  to  the  poles  with  rope.  The  'travois'  (so 
called)  is  similarly  made;  but  the  rear  ends  of  the  side-poles  rest  on  the  ground,  and  it  is  drawn  by  one  mule.  Raw-hide  may 
be  used  in  place  of  canvas,  and  it  can  be  had,  in  case  of  a  successful  fight,  by  skinning  dead  horses  or  ponies.  If  the  side-poles 
are  less  than  eighteen  feet  long,  the  rear  mule  cannot  see  where  he  puts  his  feet,  and  his  head  will  project  over  the  body  of  the 
occupant  of  the  litter,  and  may  injure  him ;  and  for  the  same  reason  the  rear  mule  is  more  apt  to  stumble  or  fall.  The  litter  is 
best  adapted  for  a  rough  country,  and,  for  cases  of  fracture,  the  '  travois'  (so  called)  will  answer  for  a  level  or  rolling  country 
and  for  wounds  other  than  fractures.  Six  to  eight  poles,  and  the  same  number  of  stretcher-bars,  can  be  transported  on  one 
mule.  Twenty-four  canvas  bottoms  can  be  transported  on  one  mule.  The  following  number  of  men — mounted — is  required  : 
One  private  for  each  mule,  one  corporal  for  each  set  of  two  litters  or  four  travois,  one  sergeant  to  each  set  of  six  litters  or 
twelve  travois,  one  or  more  line  officers.  The  officers  and  men  to  be  detailed  from  the  same  company — discipline  and  efficiency 
being  better  secured  thereby.  A  medical  officer  lias  general  charge  of  the  litter-train,  but  confines  himself  to  his  professional 
duties  and  the  general  direction  of  the  train  on  the  march.  A  steward  and  nurses  likewise  accompany  the  train  on  the  march. 
In  hitching  up  and  unloading,  one  man  holds  the  horses  of  the  men  of  each  set  of  two  litters  or  four  travois.  The  front  mule 
is  always  led;  the  rear  mule  will  often  move  more  evenly  and  more  in  harmony  with  the  leading  mule  if  left  to  himself.  The 
rear  mule  of  the  empty  litter  may  be  detached,  and  the  litter  drawn  as  a  travois  until  needed.  The  wounded  man  lies,  prefer- 
ably, facing  to  the  rear.  The  loaded  litters  march  in  rear  of  the  leading  column  of  troops — preferably  in  rear  of  the  Infantry — 
and  start  with  the  advance.  The  empty  litters  march  in  front  of  the  rear  guard,  accompanied  by  a  medical  officer.  Certain 
troops — preferably  Infantry — are  designated  in  orders  to  protect  the  litter-train  in  case  of  attack  en  route.  The  word  'travois' 
is  used  for  convenience.  I  am  in  doubt  as  to  its  orthography,  derivation,  and  true  meaning.  I  have  heard  mentioned,  incident- 
ally, made  that  Parkman,  in  some  one  of  his  works  on  the  Indian  tribes,  writes  of  their  carrying  their  goods  and  children  on 
'  travaux.'" 

Assistant  Surgeon  J.  H.  Patzki,  U.  S.  A.,  who  was  assigned  to  the  charge  of  the  wounded  of 
the  infantry  detachment  ou  this  expedition,  forwarded  from  Fort  D.  A.  Ilussell,  January  25,  1877, 
a  report  on  sick-transport,  from  which  the  following  extracts  are  made: 

"  In  Indian  warfare  wagons  and  ambulances  are  usually  pushed  as  far  as  the  nature  of  the  territory  will  permit,  but 
when  the  column  cuts  loose  from  the  train,  accompanied  only  by  pack-animals,  there  is,  as  a  rule,  nothing  provided  to  carry 
the  sick  and  wounded.  The  surgeon  relies  on  the  old,  traditional  travie,  or  on  the  mule-litter,  which,  ordinarily,  can  easily  be 
extemporized  by  constructing  a  bed  or  seat  of  blankets,  canvas,  or  raw-hide,  between  two  stout  but  elastic  saplings;  the  former 
fastened  to  one  mule  and  dragged  as  a  kind  of  sledge,  the  latter  carried  between  two  mules.  I  confess  that  the  matter  of  trans- 
portation under  these  circumstances  has  always  caused  me  much  worry;  there  is  nothing  on  hand  except,  occasionally,  the 
canvas-bed,  rarely  the  harness,  but  never,  in  my  experience,  the  most  important  part,  the  poles,  which,  it  is  trusted,  will  be 
obtained  from  the  timber  along  the  river -banks,  on  which  the  hostile  camps  are  usually  met,  or  from  the  tepee-poles  should  a 
village  be  captured.  In  the  latter  case,  abandoned  travels,  ready  for  use,  are  generally  fouiid.  A  load  of  barked  and  seasoned 
poles  could  be  easily  carried  by  a  few  mules;  but,  as  a  rule,  no  animals  are  set  apart  at  the  outset  for  transportation  of  sick  and 
wounded.  When  the  supplies  are  reduced  by  daily  consumption,  animals  become  available;  but  not  to  the  extent  one  might 
suppose;  as,  in  the  course  of  the  trip,  they  become  progressively  weaker,  and  their  loads  must  be  lightened.  *  *  This  want  of 
ready  transportation  was  felt  during  the  engagements  at  the  Rosebud,  in  June,  187fi,  when  the  command  moved  without  even  a 
pack-train;  it  was  embarrassing  in  the  extreme  to  shift  the  wounded,  to  secure  for  them  shelter  from  the  fire  by  mounting  them 
on  horses,  en  which  some  were  supported  by  comrades  mounted  behind  them,  while  others  were  carried  in  saddle-blankets 
supported  by  carbine-slings.  *  *  Ready  transportation,  available  at  any  moment,  is  a  great  desideratum  in  Indian  warfare ; 
it  would  expedite  the  movements  of  the  troops,  lessen  Buffering,  and  reduce  the  danger  of  the  wounded  and  dead  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  savages.  I  have  no  experience  with  Dr.  McElderry's  litter;  but,  in  my  opinion,  the  necessary  material  to  quickly 
construct  travees  or  two-mule-letters  would  meet  all  that  can  be  desired.  Both  are  excellent  in  their  way;  though  I  confess 
that  I  do  not  share  the  favorable  opinion,  amounting  in  some  to  enthusiasm,  in  regard  to  the  travee  as  preferable  to  the  litter. 
I  think  the  popularity  of  the  former  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  most  common  conveyance,  as  saplings  of  sufficient 
length  to  construct  mule-litters  are  not  often  found,  and  on  account  of  the  easier  construction  and  the  fewer  animals  required; 
partly  to  the  opinion  of  the  wounded,  who  glides  along  with  less  suffering  than  anticipated  on  a  rude  conveyance  upon  which  he 
looked  with  dread;  and,  finally,  to  the  relief  felt  by  the  surgeon  when  at  last  he  sees  his  flock  safely  stretched  on  the  travees 
and  keeping  pace  with  the  troops.     *     *     Its  Indian  origin  also  lends  the  travee,  in  the  eye  of  the  novice,  a  certain  charm. 


BY    PACK    ANIMALS. 


25 


From  personal  experience,  and  from  conversation  with  tin'  wounded,  I  consider  the  travee  decidedly  inferior  to  the  litter.  The 
patient!  are  comfortably  carried  in  the  latter,  if  properly  constructed  and  provided  with  a  hood;  and,  especially,  if  so  arranged 
that  the  rear  animal  can  see  the  ground  and  pick  his  way;  and,  if  the  animals  are  well  selected  as  to  gait  and  temper,  and 
eai  i 'fully  led  across  the  gulches  and  ohstructions,  to  prevent  the  rear  animal  from  jamming  against  the  one  in  front.  They  have 
the  additional  advantage  of  allowing  suspension  of  the  fractured  limbs  and  carrying  some  medicines  and  dressings  in  them, 
while  streams  of  moderate  depth  are  crossed  with  less  difficulty  than  with  trav6es.  In  deep  snow,  on  account  of  the  plunging 
and  stumbling  of  the  animals,  hampered  by  the  litter,  and  on  account  of  the  smooth  gliding  of  the  travee,  I  would  prefer  the 
latter.  Perhaps,  also,  in  the  rare  instance  where  the  trail  is  abruptly  winding  the  greater  length  of  the  litter  may  become  a 
hindrance.  The  travel  has  the  advantage,  that  its  rear  end  can  be  lifted  and  carried  over  obstructions.  I  have  found  that 
wounds  of  the  trunk,  and  even  fractures  of  the  thigh,  if  well  dressed  in  plaster,  are  less  painfully  carried  in  travels  than  in- 
juries of  the  head  and  fractures  below  the  knee,  as  patients  suffering  with  the  last-named  injuries  are  more  distressed  by  the 
jarring  and  bumping,  and  by  contact  of  the  feet  with  the  ground.  If  the  poles  are  unduly  slender  and  elastic,  or  the  canvas 
too  baggy,  the  patient  is  apt  to  have  the  greater  part  of  the  bed  come  in  contact  with  the  ground,  especially  if  this  he  uneven 
or  covered  with  brush.  Weak,  fainting  patients  are  apt  to  collapse  into  a  heap  and  to  he  dragged,  or  possibly  dropped  out, 
through  the  carelessness  of  nurses,  as  I  have  witnessed.  In  the  litter,  the  patient  can  easily  be  secured  by  surcingles.  Frac- 
tures of  the  upper  extremities,  well  splinted  or  bandaged  against  the  trunk,  are  hest  carried  on  horseback,  as  are  all  slighter 
injuries.  Of  course,  where  poles  of  sufficient  length  or  the  necessary  number  ot  animals  cannot  be  obtained,  then  the  travee, 
the  simplest  but  rudest  possible  conveyance,  is  the  last  refuge;  it  enables  the  surgeon  to  drag  his  wounded  along  dead  or  alive, 
but  the  groans  or  set  faces  of  the  sufferers  betray  that  they  are  not  on  a  bed  of  roses.  Some  say  that  travels  are  more  com- 
fortable than  even  ambulances;  this  is  not  borne  out  by  my  experience;  but,  I  think,  the  litter*  are;  not,  however,  more  bo 
than  ordinary  hand-litters,  or  hammocks  slung  iu  wagons  or  ambulances.  The  travee,  as  I  have  seen  it,  constructed  by  our 
troops,  is  decidedly  inferior  to  the  Indian  original.  The  latter  is  usually  hooded  with  wicker-work;  the  poles  are  well-seasoned, 
longer,  lighter,  and  more  elastic ;  they  converge  at  their  lower  extremity  instead  of  diverging,  thus  preventing  somewhat 
the  sliding  down  of  the  patient ;  the  seat  or  bed  is  of  platted  raw-hide  covered  with  a  robe,  less  baggy  than  blankets  or  canvas. 
In  these,  with  their  intimate  knowledge  of  their  territory,  Indians  carry  their  sick  and  wounded  with  comparative  comfort  over 
the  short  distances  they  ordinarily  travel  when  changing  camp  for  grass  or  game.  I  have  noticed  that  they  carry  fractures  ot 
the  leg  on  horseback,  the  limb  dressed  in  their  willow-splints, — similar  but  inferior  to  our  co-aptation  splints, — and  suspeuded 
from  the  pommel  of  the  saddle." 

Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  V.  T.  McGillycuddy,  who  immediately  supervised  the  transport  of 
the  wounded  carried  on  travSes  in  this  expedition,  visited  the  Army  Medical  Museum  November  15, 
1876,  and  presented  a  miniature 
model  of  such  an  appliance  at- 
tached to  a  horse.  In  this  model, 
numbered  813  in  Section  VI, 
the  ultimate  limit  of  simplicity 
is  aimed  at.  The  draughtsman 
has  tried  to  represent  it  in  the 
adjacent  wood-cut  (Fig.  33).  A 
sacking-bottom  is  lashed  to  two 
poles  that  are  separated  by  tra- 
verses, and  secured  to  the  stir- 
rup leathers  of  a  cavalry  horse 
equipped  with  the  regulation 
saddle.  The  soldier's  pack  makes 
a  pillow,  and  a  blanket  is  thrown 
over  him.  Dr.  McGillicuddy  has 
communicated  an  account  of  the 
results  of  his  observations  on  the  utility  of  this  form  of  drag,  with  comments  on  its  merits  when 
compared  with  the  two-horse  litter.  Extracts  are  subjoined  of  such  portious  of  this  paper  as  has 
not  been  anticipated  by  previous  reports.    It  is  dated  Camp  Robinson,  Nebraska,  January  27, 1877: 

"I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  following  report  on  the  comparative  merits  of  the  travois  and  two-horse  litter 
as  means  of  transportation  for  sick  and  wounded  in  service  on  the  frontier.  In  reports  heretofore  rendered,  more  or  less  con- 
fusion hiis  arisen  from  the  indiscriminate  application  of  the  term  horse-litter  to  both  of  these  conveyances,  whereas  they  are 
totally  different,  each  having  iu  own  peculiar  advantages  and  disadvantages.  The  horse-litter  (properly  speaking)  is  a  two- 
anmial  arrangement,  and  is  substantially  the  same  as  the  ordinary  hand-litter,  or  stretcher,  in  use  in  the  army,  either  horses 
or  mules  being  substituted  for  the  men,  who  act  as  stretcher-bearers,  one  animal  being  harnessed  between  the  poles  before  and 
the  ■DOOM  between  the  poles  behind;  the  patient  being  placed  on  a  piece  of  canvas  or  other  material,  stretched  between  the 
poles  in  the  intermediate  space.  The  travor,  travoir,  travoU,  traveau,  travaise,  or  travail  (as  it  is  variously  spelled),  is,  on  the 
contrary,  not  a  litter  or  stretcher  in  the  way  it  is  used.  *  *  The  animal  being  hitched  between  the  poles  in  front,  the  after 
ends  of  the  poles  rest  on  the  ground  and  act  as  runners,  the  patient  resting  on  canvas  stretched  between  the  poles  in  the  rear 
4 


Fid.  33.— Travit  or  Indian  horse-litter  as  Bffured  by  Dr.  McGlLLYCLUIiY. 


26  TRANSPORT   OF   SICK    AND    WOUNDED 

of  the  animal.  In  fact,  the  horse-litter  is  carried  by  the  animals,  while  the  travois  is  drawn.  Sometimes  two  animals  are  used 
with  the  travois,  harnessed  in  tandem;  but,  in  my  experience,  I  find  one  animal  sufficient  for  the  load  for  any  ordinary  march, 
even  in  a  rough  country.  *  *  The  travois  may  have  been  employed  years  ago  by  our  medical  officers  on  the  frontier;  but  it 
certainly  never  was  used  so  extensively  nor  brought  before  the  public  so  prominently,  as  during  the  present  Sioux  war.  I  hail 
good  opportunities  for  observing  the  comparative  advantages  of  the  travois  over  the  horse-litter  while  on  the  Big  Horn  expedi- 
tion during  the  past  summer,  especially  after  the  engagement  at  Slim  Buttes,  when  I  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  transport  of 
the  wounded  by  Surgeon  Clements.  For  transportation  I  employed  nine  travois  and  three  two-horse  litters,  and  carried  the 
wounded  a  distance  of  about  eighty  miles,  from  the  field  to  the  northern  portion  of  the  Black  Hills,  where  wagons  were  pro- 
cured. Our  route  was  over  a  portion  of  country  untravelled,  and  in  some  places  very  much  broken  and  hilly,  and,  in  other 
parts,  very  difficult  on  account  of  the  numerous  small  streams,  which  made  the  ground  very  soft  and  almost  impassable,  even 
for  cavalry.  One  objection  to  the  two-horse  litter  is,  that  two  animals  are  always  required  with  two  men  to  each  animal,  one 
to  lead  the  other  to  drive.  So,  to  transport  one  patient,  two  aninals  and  four  men  are  required.  With  a  travois,  but  one  animal 
and  two  men  are  necessary.  With  the  two-horse  litter,  if  the  leading  wishes  to  travel  a  little  more  rapidly  than  the  after  animal, 
one  or  other  animal  is  apt  to  pull  or  be  pulled  out  of  the  harness,  and  the  litter  come  to  the  ground  either  by  the  foot  or  head, 
causing  the  animal  that  remains  attached  to  be  frightened,  which  results  in  more  or  less  damage  to  the  vehicle  and  patient;  on 
the  contrary,  if  the  after  animal  hastens  a  little,  then  there  is  apt  to  be  a  collapse.  If  one  of  the  animals  stumbles  and  falls 
down,  either  the  other  has  to  come  also  or  the  conveyance  is  broken,  and  the  person  carried  thrown  out.  There  is  another 
objection  to  the  two-horse  litter;  if  both  animals  keep  step,  the  litter  begins  to  vibrate,  from  the  regularity  of  the  motion,  and 
increases  to  such  a  degree  as  to  almost  throw  the  patient  out.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  men  employed  as  stretcher-bearers  have 
to  break  step;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  animals  break  step,  the  result  is  a  kind  of  a  compound  joggling  motion  which  is  very 
unpleasant  to  the  occupant  of  the  litter.  I  find  it  necessary  to  carry  long  straps  around  the  litter  and  patient,  to  prevent  his 
being  bounced  out.  If  the  animals  become  unmanageable,  and  the  patient  is  by  any  means  thrown  out,  or  throws  himself  out, 
he  has  a  long  distance  to  fall,  and  is  apt  to  sustain  further  injuries.  In  crossing  soft  swampy  ground,  should  the  animals  get 
to  floundering,  they  being  both  fastened  to  the  same  conveyance  seriously  interfere  with  each  other,  which  renders  them 
entirely  unmanageable.  Besides,  owing  to  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the  rear  animal  is  fastened  to  the  litter,  it  is  impossible 
for  him  to  regain  his  feet.  The  litter  cutting  off  the  Bight  of  the  ground  from  the  rear  animal,  makes  him  particularly  liable  to 
stumble.  In  fact,  in  being  forced  to  use  two  animals  in  the  litter,  the  liability  to  accident  and  trouble  is  more  than  doubled, 
without  a  corresponding  amount  of  benefit  resulting.  The  travois,  on  the  contrary,  is  easily  constructed,  requires  but  one 
animal  and  only  one  man  to  manage.  Should  the  horse  or  mule  for  any  reason  become  unmanageable,  the  patient  has 
only  to  roll  off,  being  but  a  few  inches  from  the  ground,  and  therefore  runs  very  little  risk  of  being  injured.  On  moderately 
smooth  ground  I  have  frequently  traveled  with  the  travee  at  a  trot,  without  inconveniencing  the  patient,  a  thing  impossible  to 
do  with  a  two-horse  litter.  In  view  of  these  facts,  I  consider  the  trav6e  in  every  way  preferable  to  the  horse-litter,  and,  unless 
over  good  roads,  it  is  preferable  to  the  ambulance-wagon.  I  have  heard  patients,  after  having  been  transferred  to  the  wagons, 
wish  themselveB  back  to  the  tra\'6e.  As  I  have  before  remarked,  the  travel  is  very  easy  of  construction,  and  with  a  limited 
supply  of  tools,  finding  myself  one  day  several  miles  in  the  rear  of  the  column  with  a  sick  officer  unable  to  travel  on  horse- 
back, I  succeeded  in  constructing  a  very  comfortable  travel  in  the  course  of  an  hour,  using  small  pine  trees  for  poles,  and  inter- 
lacing the  lariats  of  the  horses  between  the  poles  for  the  support  of  the  patient;  in  this  case  the  only  tools  available  were  our 
belt-knives." 

Assistant  Surgeon  J.  R.  Gibson,  U.  S.  A.,  on  returning  from  the  Powder  Eiver  expedition1 
against  the  Sioux  in  November  and  December,  1876,  transmitted  from  Fort  McPherson,  Nebraska, 
January  24,  1877,  the  following  observations: 

*  *  "The  old  traditional  travois,  with  its  rude  construction  and  apparent  imperfections,  is,  in  reality,  a  great  boon. 
It  is  open  to  objections;  but,  when  the  nature  of  the  service,  character  of  the  country,  and  limited  facilities  are  taken  into  con- 
sideration, the  travois  comes  prominently  forward  as  the  means,  par  excellence,  for  the  transport  of  the  disabled.  It  is  not  equally 
well  adapted  to  all  the  emergencies  incident  to  Indian  warfare;  for,  in  many  cases,  doubless  grave  perplexities  would  arise,  as, 
for  instance,  in  shot  fractures  of  the  lower  extremities;  here  its  advantage  is  questionable.  Yet,  in  the  last  campaign,  two  cases, 
one  shot-fracture  of  the  upper  thigh  and  one  involving  the  hip-joint,  were  carried  for  a  distance  of  fifty  or  sixty  miles,  from 
battle-field  to  supply-camp,  with  the  utmost  comfort.  These  patients  were  in  plaster  of  Paris  dressings.  In  fact,  on  their  sub- 
sequent transfer  to  ambulance  wagons  or  to  swinging  litters  in  army  wagons,  their  expressed  preferences  for  the  travois  were 
most  pronounced.  *  *  The  two-mule  litter  was  not  used  in  the  Powder  Run  expedition.  My  experience  with  it  is 
very  limited,  having  seen  it  used  in  but  one  instance  several  years  since.  The  objection  to  it  consists  in  the  difficulty  of  securing 
animals  uniformly  gaited,  in  the  liability  of  the  rear  mule  falling  or  being  dragged  by  the  lead  mule;  also  in  the  varying  devia- 
tions from  a  plane  surface  which  the  litter  describes  in  traversing  very  abrupt  country.  It  has  also  some  advantages;  for  instance, 
in  crossing  fordable  streams  and  swift  currents  the  patient's  position  is  far  more  secure  and  comfortable  than  on  the  travois,  the 
latter  necessitating  the  services  of  attendants  to  secure  the  free  ends  of  the  drag,  and  to  wade  the  streams  carrying  their  burden. 
The  rate  of  travel  attainable  by  mule-litter  is  much  greater  than  by  travois.  The  drag-litter  is  readily  prepared  from  materials 
at  hand;  white-pine  saplings  are  the  poles,  and  canvas  stretched  on  them  forms  the  bed.  The  Indians  use  raw-hide  or  robes. 
Oftentimes  the  Indian  litter  is  found  ready  for  use  in  a  captured  village.  *  *  The  use  of  the  modern  expedients,  with 
their  elegant  appliances,  harness,  gear,  etc.,  seem  to  me  to  be  excluded  simply  for  the  reason  that,  in  such  campaigns,  the  number 
of  pack-animals  is  usually  limited.     If  the  number  sufficient  to  transport  medical  supplies  alone  is  furnished,  the  medical  officer 

1  The  "  Powder  Kiver  Expedition  "  against  the  Sioux,  under  the  command  of  Brigadier  General  G.  CBOOK,  commenced  November  14,  187(1,  and 
terminated  December  29,  lH7b\  The  expeditionary  force  consisted  of  eleven  onnHMinUw  of  cavalry,  four  of  artillery,  and  eleven  of  infantry,  an  aggregate 
of  74  officers,  1,441  enlisted  men,  with  1155  friendly  .Shoshone,  Pawnee,  and  Arapahoe  scouts.  November  25,  1876,  Colonel  H.  MACKKNZIK,  4th  Cavalry, 
attacked  and  captured  a  Cheyenne  village  on  the  north  fork  of  the  Powder  Kiver,  on  Bates  Creek,  and  lost  six  killed  and  twenty -seven  wounded. 


BY    PACK    ANIMALS.  27 

may  consider  himself  fortunate.  A  mule  can  he  utilized  in  two  ways:  lie  goes  out  packed  with  commissary  supplies,  which, 
when  consumed,  make  the  animal,  with  his  pack-saddle,  available  for  emergencies, — he  generally  returns  the  bearer  of  a  litter. 
Of  course  it  would  be  desirable  to  have  the  means  of  transportation  of  sick   and  wounded  entirely  and  solely  under  medical 

direction.  The  animals  should  be  previously  selected,  accustomed  to  their  harness  and  new  duties;  also,  they  should,  from  the 
start,  he  reserved  for  this  servire  alone.'  By  this  means  the  transportation  of  pack-saddles,  harness,  etc.,  is  secured,  otherwise 
it  would  prove  a  matter  of  no  little  difficulty  and  annoyance  to  have  the  gearing  and  poles  of  perhaps  thirty  to  forty  litters 
carried.     For  the  above-cited  reasons,  chiefly,  I  consider  the  improvised  litter  preferable  to  more  modern  appliances." 

Assistant  Surgeon  D.  L.  Huntington,  U.  S.  A.,  who  has  had  much  frontier  experience,  has 
kindly  furnished  the  reporter,  from  Soldiers'  Home,  Washington,  January  18,  1877,  the  following 
remarks  on  army  sick-transport  under  conditions  of  exigency: 

"Such  experience  as  I  have  had  on  the  frontier  and  in  the  midst  of  hostile  Indian  tribes  leads  me  to  the  conclusion  that 
all  the  common  forms  of  apparatus  for  transporting  badly  wounded  men  under  circumstances  where  wheeled  vehicles  cannot  be 
used  are  serviceable  ami  useful  ;  the  circumstances  and  peculiarities  of  any  given  situation  giving  to  each  form  of  apparatus  its 
particular  value.  I'nder  the  widely  varying  geographical  diversity  of  our  country,  I  doubt  the  possibility  of  determining  upon 
any  one  apparatus  which  shall  be  equally  serviceable  in  all  places  and  under  all  conditions.  The  necessarily  irregular  and 
peculiar  warfare  waged  with  hostile  Indians  renders  it  impracticable,  in  many  cases,  to  properly  fit  out  a  scout  for  an  emergency 
with  all  that  is  desirable  for  the  contingencies  of  action ;  and  it  often  happens  that,  most  unexpectedly,  and  in  the  most  inopportune 
places,  the  ingenuity  of  a  medical  officer  is  taxed  to  the  utmost  to  provide  transportation  for  a  man  wounded  in  a  sudden  Indian 
attack,  or  injured  by  accident  at  a  distance  from  camp  or  settlement.  Even  with  expeditions  fitted  out  for  the  express  purpose 
of  seeking  and  fighting  Indians,  the  character  of  the  country  often  presents  such  obstacles  to  the  use  of  the  ordinary  conveyances 
for  the  wounded,  that  the  medical  officer  is  perplexed  to  know  what  material  even  can  be  taken,  which  may  be  serviceable  in 
fitting  up  transport  apparatus  when  needed.  Again,  it  not  (infrequently  happens  that  in  the  hot  pursuit  of  Indians  who  are 
seeking  safety  in  almost  inaccessable  mountains  and  canons,  it  is  necessary  to  abandon,  for  a  time,  the  pack-trains  and  follow  the 
enemy  in  the  lightest  order.  In  such  situations,  the  transport  of  an  unfortunate  wounded  man  to  the  base  of  supplies  is  a  difficult 
and  dangerous  matter,  and  the  medical  officer  is  here  required  at  once  to  suggest  and  practically  carry  out  some  plan  that  will 
insure  the  safe  removal  of  the  man.  Under  such  circumstances,  I  was  once  obliged  to  transport  a  soldier,  wounded  in  the  abdo- 
men, a  distance  of  twelve  miles  along  the  narrow  bed  of  a  creek  filled  with  boulders  and  obstructions.  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to  find  two  ash-saplings  which,  with  a  blanket  stretched  across,  made  an  improvised  litter,  on  which  my  patient  was  borne,  by 
relays  of  men,  with  comparative  ease  and  comfort.  At  another  time,  a  man  belonging  to  a  small  detachment  sent  out  from  a 
scouting  party  was  wounded  in  the  leg  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  a  musket.  Finding  it  impossible  to  place  the  man  on  horse- 
back, and  unsafe  to  detach  a  small  party  to  seek  the  main  command,  his  comrades  carried 
him  a  distance  of  about  three  miles,  by  forming  a  seat  with  their  hands  and  arms,  similar 
to  the  chairs  made  by  children  in  their  games  (FlG.  34).  During  the  late  war,  I  saw  a 
soldier,  who  had  been  wounded  at  some  distance  from  his  command,  conveyed  to  a  place 
of  safety  by  laying  him  prone  across  a  saddle,  the  stirrup  of  one  side  being  sufficiently 
lengthened  to  afford  support  for  one  foot.  The  horse  with  his  burden  was  then  led  quite  a 
distance.  I  am  familiar  with  another  instance,  where  a  man,  badly  wounded,  was  con- 
veyed about  a  three-days'  journey  in  a  cot  or  hammock  formed  by  securing  a  blanket  to 
two  lariat  ropes;  the  ends  of  the  ropes  were  gathered  and  carried  by  his  comrades  on  horse- 
back. All  military  surgeons  know  of  instances  where  wounded  men  have  been  carried 
rom  the  battle-field  on  muskets  with  an  overcoat  laid  upon  them  for  a  bed.  Under  the 
urgent  demands  of  necessity,  the  fruits  of  ingenuity  are  sure  to  come  to  the  rescue.  Of  the  Flo.  34.— Sent  made  by  clasping  arms, 
usual  apparatus  for  conveying  wounded,  the  ordinary  hand-litter  is  the  simplest  and  gen- 
erally the  most  useful  in  the  greater  number  of  cases,  particularly  when  the  command  is  large  and  the  distance  to  be  travelled 
not  excessive.  It  can  be  easily  secured  to  a  pack-saddle,  and,  with  a  little  attention  from  the  mule  driver,  it  may  be  safely 
carried  a  long  journey.  If  it  becomes  necessary  to  penetrate  canons  or  ravines,  impracticable  for  the  train,  it  can  be  carried  on 
men's  shoulders.  If  called  into  requisition  for  transport  for  long  distances,  it  must,  of  course,  be  carried  by  relays  of  men.  Over 
rough  country,  it  is  the  easiest  and  most  comfortable  mode  of  conveyance  for  the  wounded,  although  laborious  and  fatiguing  to 
the  command.  The  litter  for  two  mules  is  a  comfortable  and  easy  mode  of  conveyance,  provided  the  mules  are  quiet  and  have 
bats  trained  to  its  use;  otherwise,  the  unsteady  motion  and  frequent  jerks,  cause  much  pain  to  tin'  sufferer.  It  is  inapplicable 
over  very  rough  country,  and  in  narrow-winding  mountain  trails  or  in  densely-wooded  and  unbroken  country.  The  travee  is  a 
common  and  familiar  mode  of  conveyance,  easily  improvised,  and  not  uncomfortable.  The  side-poles  for  its  construction  may  be 
carried  with  any  pack-train  in  the  manner  in  which  the  Indians  carry  their  lodge-poles.  The  most  favorable  condition  for  its 
use  is  over  plain  country.  In  rough  country,  and  in  mountains,  it  is  dangerous.  I  have  had  no  experience  with  the  cacolet; 
but  doubt  if  it  would  l>e  of  much  service  with  the  small  mule  so  common  in  the  West  and  over  mountain  trails.  Judging  from 
the  description  of  such  mounted  litters  for  one  mule  as  have  been  successfully  employed  on  several  occasions,  I  should  think 
that  probably  future  experience  will  succeed  in  perfecting  it  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  it  a  very  desirable  conveyance  for 
general  use.  Even  a  limited  experience  in  the  Indian  country  will  serve  to  bring  out  all  the  latent  ingenuity  of  a  medical  officer 
in  devising  apparatus  suitable  to  the  end  to  be  attained;  and  he  will  at  once  learn  the  value  of  such  material  as  can  be  readily 
carried  by  man  or  beast,  as  rope,  buckskin  thongs,  and  blankets." 

1  The  ltritish  Military  Train  Manual  (1S62,  p.  37)  remark*,  in  the  directions  for  Loading  of  1'ackAnimaU,  "Great  judgment  is  required  in  load- 
ng  pack-animals,  and  care  should  be  taken  Unit  the  unimals  are  not  overweighted,  that  the  load  is  well  put  on,  that  it  is  neither  pitched  too  high  upon 
the  saddle,  thereby  earning  it  to  roll  apoa  the  buck,  nor  toe  low,  which  adds  to  the  weight  and  encumbers  the  animal,  but  that  the  lower  line  of  the  load 
should  be  even  with  the  shoulders.'" 


28  TRANSPORT   OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 

Assistant  Surgeon-General  C.  H.  Crane,  IT.  S.  A.,  lias  noted  a  curious  expedient  by  which,  in 
the  absence  of  any  regular  appliances,  a  wounded  man  was  transported  a  long  distance  in  the 
mountainous  regions  of  Oregon : 

"I  believe  that  the  nature  of  the  country  where  troops  are  operating  against  Indians  must  determine  the  question  as 
to  the  best  way  of  transporting  the  wounded  men;  and  that  there  will  generally  he  found  in  the  command  sufficient  ingenuity 
and  means  to  successfully  overcome  all  obstacles,  and  to  devise  and  carry  out  the  most  appropriate  methods  of  transport.  I 
have  had  occasion,  during  several  Indian  campaigns  in  California  and  Oregon,  to  use  litters  for  carrying  wounded  men  over  diffi- 
cult mountain-trails;  in  one  instance,  for  a  distance  of  forty  or  fifty  miles.  This  difficult  and  tedious  undertaking  was  accom- 
plished by  hand-litters,  constructed  on  the  spot,  from  such  material  as  happened  to  be  available,  generally  by  lashing  canvas  or 
thongs  of  raw-hide  to  poles  cut  in  the  woods.  I  have  never  used  the  so-called  travee  or  traversine,  or  Indian  litter;  I  have 
seen  a  wounded  man  safely  carried  by  his  comrades  for  a  distance  of  over  fifty  miles,  along  bad  mountain-trails,  packed  on  an 
aparejo  on  a  mule's  back.  He  was  placed  in  a  semi-recumbent  position  facing  the  mule's  tail,  reclining  in  the  frame  of  an  old 
trunk,  from  which  the  lid  and  one  end  had  been  removed.  His  wound  was  from  a  rifle-bullet  that  had  perforated  the  muscles 
of  the  upper  third  of  the  thigh  without  touching  the  femur.  It  was  so  painful  that  he  could  not  be  carried  in  the  usual  way, 
on  horseback,  as  I  have  seen  safely  done  in  several  other  instances  of  shot  wounds  in  the  same  location." 

In  an  endorsement  on  the  papers  relating  to  the  Rooker  saddle  attachment,  General  W.  T. 
Sherman  makes  the  following  observations  on  the  transport  of  wounded  in  cases  of  emergency:1 

"When  wagons  are  present  or  near  they  are,  of  course,  the  best  possible,  because  the  wounded  man  can  be  placed  in  a 
position  for  carriage  by  the  surgeon  in  charge,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  wound.  When  there  are  no  wagons,  the  stretcher 
improvised  on  the  spot  out  of  blankets  and  poles  is  the  best  possible,  carried  by  men  or  arranged  to  a  horse,  like  the  lodge-poles 
of  the  Sioux.  These  are  better  than  this  saddle.  A  wounded  man,  ninety-nine  times  out  of  the  hundred,  wants  a  recumbent 
position  as  soon  as  possible.  If  the  occasion  does  not  admit  of  this,  then  he  must  be  carried  on  the  back  of  a  man,  or  on  a  horse, 
with  a  comrade  behind  him  to  support  him  and  guide  the  horse.  All  sorts  of  saddles  have  been  tried  for  carrying  wounded 
men,  but  as  a  rule  they  are  always  left  behind,  and  though  I  would  not  discourage  the  inventive  genius  and  efforts  of  men 
humanely  disjjosed,  I  would  trust  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  officer  and  surgeon  on  the  spot.  Mr.  Rooker's  saddle  seems  to  have 
been  issued  to  General  Custer  and  others  competent  to  judge,  and  the  only  answers  I  find  in  this  series  of  papers  are  that  of 
Captain  Mix,  2d  Cavalry,  and  of  Dr.  Maghee,  both  of  which  are  unfavorable.  This  matter,  as  well  as  others  of  a  similar 
nature,  may  well  be  left  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  troops  interested,  who  are  fully  qualified  to  take  care  of  themselves  in  all  the 
contingencies  of  war." 

Notwithstanding  the  opinions  of  officers  of  distinction  and  of  large  practical  experience,  I  am 
unable  to  convince  myself  that  it  is  prudent  or  economical  to  confide  the  matter  of  sick  transport 
to  the  ingenuity  of  troops.  Because  there  will  generally  be  found  in  military  commands  sufficient 
ingenuity  to  construct  a  bridge,  it  is  not  considered  expedient  for  the  engineers  to  neglect  the 
study  of  trestles  and  pontoons;  anil  whatever  aptitude  the  men  may  have  for  foraging,  a  regulated 
administration  of  commissary,  quartermaster,  and  ordnance  supplies  is  deemed  essential.  So,  like- 
wise, in  the  medical  service  of  armies,  if  the  difficult  problems  concerning  the  transport  of  sick 
and  wounded  men,  with  due  Care  for  the  safety  of  their  lives  and  alleviation  of  their  sufferings,  are 
not  studied  out  in  advance,  there  will  be  great  detiitneut,  on  numerous  occasions  in  campaigning, 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  fighting  force.2  Experience  having  demonstrated  that,  in  our  army,  some 
other  mode  of  transport  than  by  hand-litters  and  \Uieel-vehicles  is  imperatively  necessary,  it  is 

■Captain  A.  MOOKE,  3d  Cavalry,  October  3,  1872,  forwarded,  from  Fort  McPhersun,  Nebraska,  to  tbe  headquarters  of  the  Department  of  the 
Platte,  a  memorandum  in  regard  to  the  equipment  necessary  for  the  successful  working  of  a  pack-train  to  accompany  expeditions  against  Indians,  con- 
taining in  substance  the  following  practical  hints:  A  thoroughly  qualified  chief  packer  should  be  engaged  with  two  or  four  assistants,  according  to  the 
duration  of  the  proposed  scout.  He  sees  that  the  aparejos  are  properly  fitted  to  the  mules,  which  takes  time  and  care.  An  aparejo  fitted  to  a  small  mule, 
such  as  are  used  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  should  not  weigh  over  18  pounds.  In  the  Department  of  the  Platte,  where  American  mules  are  used,  the 
weight  of  the  aparejo  should  not  exceed  22  i>ounds.  The  packer  and  his  assistants  should  put  on  and  off  the  aparejo,  carefully  attending  to  galls  or 
sores  ou  the  pack-animal's  back.  He  should  forbid  the  blankets  of  the  pack-animal  from  being  used  as  bedding,  and  see  that  the  dock  or  crupper  is 
kept  clean  and  well  greased,  as  pack  mules  in  a  mountainous  country  suffer  more  from  lacerated  tails  than  from  any  other  injury.  He  should  daily 
equalize  the  packs,  favoring  the  weaker  animals.  The  aparejos  furnished  in  the  Department  of  the  Platte  were  not  proj>erly  fitted  to  the  males.  To 
procure  competent  packers  Captain  MooitF.  believed  it  to  be  necessary  to  send  to  Oregon,  Idaho,  Nevada,  or  Arizona,  where  the  roughness  of  the  country 
precludes  the  use  of  wagons.  Captain  MOOKK  slates  that  he  had  used  aparejos  on  Indian  expeditions  almost  continuously  since  18t>7,  and  was  oonvtooed 
of  their  superiority  to  other  pack-saddles.  In  December,  1871,  Captain  MOORK  turned  over  at  Tucson  a  train  of  mules  in  perfect  order,  that  had  followed 
his  company  over  4,000  miles  in  less  than  a  year,  bearing  packs  on  the  aparejo.  In  forwarding  the  report  of  which  the  foregoing  is  a  brief  abstract, 
Brigadier-General  E.  O.  C.  Oun  remarks  that  the  "Mexican  aparejo  is  much  used  throughout  Mexico,  California,  and  the  mountains  of  Nevada,  Arizona. 
and  Utah,  and  that  no  intelligent  pucker  will  allow  an  old-style  puck-saddle  to  gall  his  mules  if  he  had  means  to  make,  buy,  beg,  borrow,  or  steal  a  decent 
aparejo."  *  *  l.ieiiten, .  nil  leneral  1'.  II.  SIIEItlliAK,  in  transmitting  the  report,  remarks:  *  »  '•  There  has  been  a  great  variety  of  opinions  lus  to 
the  relative  value  of  pack-saddles.  If  a  corps  of  Mexican  packers  are  to  be  used,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  have  aparejos,  because  that  is  the  instru- 
ment which  is  their  beau  ideal,  and  there  is  no  people  so  celebrated  for  beastly  inule-cruelty  as  the  Mexicans.  When  mules  follow  a  scouting  party 
whieh  travels  at  a  rapid  gait,  to  keep  their  backs  well  is  a  difficult  thing,  and  no  odds  how  well  adjusted  the  saddle  may  l>e  when  the  mule  starts  out,  in 
a  few  days,  the  fatigue  and  loss  of  flesh  destroys  the  first  adjustment  of  the  saddle  to  the  pack.  I  have  packed  extensively  with  skilful  Mexican  and 
American  packers,  with  aparejos  and  pack-saddles,  and  have  found  the  condition  of  the  mules  and  the  condition  of  their  backs  to  depend  very  much 
upon  the  sj>eed  with  which  they  were  driven,  and  the  roughness  or  smoothness  of  the  country  over  which  they  travel." 

2  To  such  an  extent  that  in  several  of  the  exjieditions  against  Indians  in  187tt,  four  men  and  two  animals  were  subtracted  from  the  effective  furce  for 
every  man  sick  or  wounded,  a  most  unprofitable  expenditure  of  labor. 


BY    PACK   ANIMALS. 


29 


important  to  determine  the  best  method.  Assuredly  tbis  cannot  be  the  devotion  of  two  animals 
and  four  soldiers  to  the  carriage  of  one  sick  man.  It  is  known  that  in  countries  varying  in  climate 
and  geographical  configuration  as  widely  as  Algeria,  Russia,  Italy,  aud  Mexico,1  it  has  been  found 
possible  to  transport  two  wounded  men  by  one  mule,  and  that  only  one  muleteer  was  needed  for 
every  two  mules.  The  utility  and  economy  of  such  an  arrangement  are  so  obvious,  that,  notwith- 
standing the  expense  and  systematic  care  required  to  provide  animals  of  sufficient  strength  and 
docility  and  men  adequately  instructed  in  the  training  of  the  animals  and  care  of  the  wouuded,  it 
would  be  feasible  and  desirable  to  renew  the  attempt  to  secure  its  advantages,  as  has  been  success- 
fully accomplished  in  other  armies.  It  is  probable  that,  with  suitable  pack-auimals2  and  trained 
hospital  men,  the  advantages  in  comfort  and  economy  of  perfected  cacolets3  aud  litters  over  rude 
improvisations,4  5  however  ingenious,  would  be  recognized.    In  a  shipwreck,  one  admires  the  ingeuu- 


1  It  has  already  been  noticed  (ante,  p.  12)  that  the  French  invading  force  in  Mexico,  in  1865,  took  with  them  the  ambulance-mules  that  had  formerly 
served  in  Algeria,  and  had  no  difficulty  in  earn fag  two  sick  or  wounded  men  on  each;  while  the  Austrians,  provided  with  similar  cacolets  and  litters, 
but  without  competent  muleteers,  or  any  animals  but  those  procured  in  Mexico,  failed  wretchedly  in  their  sick  transport.  It  would  be  presumptuous  to 
propound  ■  definite  plan  for  sick-trnusjMirt  fcf  our  army  for  circumstances  where  wheeled-vehicles  and  water-transportation  are  unavailable,  while  the 
expressed  opinions  of  experienced  officers  are  so  divergent,  and  old  methods  have  repeatedly  failed;  but  as  steps  in  the  right  direction,  it  might  be 
suggested  that  troops  operating  in  frontier  regions,  ami  dependent  ou  pack-trains  for  their  supplies,  should  be  accompanied  not  only  by  farriers,  packers, 
ami  c«ininii>sary  and  ordnance  employes,  hut  by  hospital- men  or  infirmarians  familiar  with  the  handling  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  capable  of  utilizing 
the  means  provided  for  their  tnmsj»ort ;  mid  also  by  trained  mules  or  ponies  fit  forumbulance-transport.  Both  men  aud  animals  could  render  other  services 
until  their  sjHNrial  functions  were  called  in  requisition.  Could  even  a  small  body  of  trained  hospital  men  1m>  distributed  through  the  detachments  of  the 
army,  they  would  serve  as  fuglemen,  to  drill  two  or  more  detailed  men  in  each  company  in  the  duties  requisite  in  emergencies  for  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
wounded,  nnd  would  constitute  a  corps  of  enlisted  men  from  which  competent  hospital  stewards  could  be  recruited. 

*The  burden  a  mule  can  sustain  continuously  varies  much,  according  to  the  breed  or  strain,  as  well  as  in  individuals.  "A  good  .Spanish  mule,  of 
proper  age,  is  said  to  be  able  to  travel  several  months  continiii.usly  with  a  weight  of  some  six  to  eight  hundred  weight  on  its  back  ;  but  only  the  best, 
full-sized,  and  well-limbed  animals  can  accomplish  this  task.  (LONGMOKE,  op.  cit.,  p.  268).  In  the  "  Voyage  of  the  Beagle"  Mr.  Dakwix  mentions, 
with  regard  to  South  American  mules,  that  it  is  the  custom  for  each  animal  in  a  troop  to  carry  a  weight  of  416  pounds  when  the  ground  is  level ;  but  that 
in  a  mountainous  country  the  mule's  load  is  only  about  300  pounds.  Dr.  NRUI>0ltFKR  (Handbuch  tier  Kriegschir.,  1867,  B.  I,  p.  341)  states,  that  the 
largest  and  strongest  nudes  that  could  he  obtained  in  Mexico  by  the  Austrian  expeditionary  foroe  in  1864-65,  broke  down  under  a  weight  of  four  hundred 
iM.undrt.  Lom  and  Hain'Kh  (Sliiftx  tuul  Expedient*  of  Camp  Life,  London,  1871,  p.  468)  assert:  "About  140  pounds  is  about  as  much  as  a  mule  of 
average  power  can  travel  well  with  from  day  to  day,"  meaning  prolwbly  the  load  in  addition  to  the  pack-saddle  and  accoutrement.  They  prefer  ani- 
mals of  comparatively  small  size,  and  mare  mules  to  horse  mules  as  more  tractable.  "Baggage  mules  abound  in  some  of  the  mountainous  parts  of 
Eastern  India,  but  they  cannot  1m-  turned  to  account  for  the  carriage  of  European  cacolets  and  litieres  with  a  couple  of  sick  or  wounded  men  upon  them. 
They  have  not  the  requisite  size  or  strength.  They  were  tried  for  this  purpose  experimentally  at  Huzara,  in  1854,  by  Captain  HUGHES,  commanding  the 
Peslmwur  Mountain  llattery,  but  were  found  to  be  quite  incapable  of  sustaining  such  a  load.  These  mules  are  thoroughly  efficient  for  the  tasks  they 
have  to  perform,  for  carrying  supplies  over  rocky  and  precipitous  defiles,  or  in  the  interior  of  a  country  where  there  are  no  roads,  because  their  loads  are 
properly  pro|>ortioncd  to  their  size  and  power  of  endurance;  but  only  a  mule  that  is  capable  of  carrying  without  distress  a  weight  of  from  four  hundred 
pounds  to  tive  hundred  pounds  can  do  the  work  required  in  the  BtBQfMU  mode  of  .-irk- transport,  and  any  attempt  to  get  mules  of  less  power  to  perform 
this  service  satisfactorily  must  always  end  in  disappointment  and  loss." — LoXGMORE,  op.  cit.t  p.  269.  Pack,  in  commerce,  denotes  a  quantity  of  goods 
made  up  in  loads  or  bales  for  carriage  {Hkks's  Cyclopxdia,  Am.  ed.,  Vol.  XXVII):  "A  pack  of  wool  is  a  horse's  load,  containing  seventeen  stone  and 
two  pounds,  or  two  hundred  and  forty  pOUndl  weight.''  In  the  Report  of  G.  B.  MiCi.ei.i.ax  it  is  stated  {op.  cit.,  p.  25)  that  in  the  Prussian  service  the 
normal  load  of  a  pack-animal  was  then  (1855)  estimated  at  two  hundred  and  four  pounds. 

•The  derivation  of  the  terra  caeolet  is  doubtful.  M.  LlTTitE  (IHctionaire  de  la  Langue  Franchise,  T.  I,  p.  449)  says:  "Mot  usite  dans  les 
Pyrenees."  It  has  been  suggested,  according  to  Professor  LONGMOKK  (op.  cit.,  p.  272),  that  the  word  may  be  derived  from  the  resemblance  in  principle 
of  the  mule  -chair  to  the  arrangement  for  carrying  milk  in  casks  stung  on  a  mule  (cdque  au  tail),  employed  by  the  j»ensantry  in  the  south  of  France,  where 
mule-litters  and  chairs  were  first  provided,  as  a  part  of  the  ambulance  outfit  for  the  troops  on  their  way  to  Algeria.  It  has  also  been  supftosed  that 
"caeolet  "  is  simply  a  corruption  of  "cabriolet,"  which  originally  denoted  a  sort  of  little  arm-chair.  It  seems  probable  that  the  word  was  of  local  use 
in  the  Pyrenees  to  designate  the  burden  of  a  pack  animal.  The  eminent  Russian  surgeon  PlItOGOFF  Commends  the  caeolet  (Grundzuge  der  Allge- 
written  Krirgtehirurgie,  1864,  p.  42) :  "In  the  Caucasus.  I  tested  several  times  the  Algerian  transport  saddle  and  chair.  I  conveyed  in  the  same.  M 
horses,  through  the  narrow  defiles  of  Dagestan,  several  wounded  with  conijxaiml  fractures  of  the  leg,  after  having  secured  the  injured  limb  in  paste 
bondage*.    The  transported  men  found  this  mode  very  comfortable." 

4  An  abstract  from  F.  ,1  agon's  Travel*  in  the  Philippines  'London,  Chapman  &  Hall,  1876)  is  given  in  Harper' t  Xew  Monthly  Magazine,  for 
December,  1H76  (Vol.  LI  V,  p.  78),  and  contains,  among  its  numerous  illustrations,  a  drawing  of  a  Pavava  (Fig.  35),  a  conveyance  drawn  by  a  buffalo, 
and  employed  by  the  country  jteople  about  Manila.  The  shafts,  frame-work,  and  Unly  are  of  bamboo;  the  collar  and  nose-band  of  the  buffalo  of  chair 
cane,  and  the  roof  of  pundauus  leaves.  This  arrangement  furnishes  a  hint  for  making  travees  more  comfortable.  Unhappily  the  bamboo,  admirably 
lOHod  to  the  construction  of  Utters  nnd  stretchers,  is  not  available  in  this  country.  Koi>i-HH  (k'ntwurf  zu  einer  sowohl  fur  den  FrUden  als  Kriegs- 
zuttand  dauernd  bleibenden  Transportirungs-anstalt  fur  Kranke  und  Verwundete,  Aachen,  1815),  has  proposed  to  suspend  a  large  litter  for  two  or  more 

wounded  between  two  oxen,  as  in  Flu.  36;  but  he  considers  this  expedient  unlikely 
to  be  of  general  application,  since  the  movements  of  oxen  are  very  slow,  unfitting  them 
for  purposes  of  military  transport. 


Fig.  39. — Pavava  used  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 


Fig.  36.— Bullock  litter.     [After  H.  Fischer.) 


*  Early  references  to  the  Indian  drag  or  litter  use  the  word  "travail  "  (plural  traraux),  a  term  possibly  applied,  by  metonymy,  to  a  labor-saving 
appliance.  It  seems  more  probable,  however,  that  the  early  PlOMh  voyaireurs  and  inis»ioners  who  visited  the  western  wilderness  gave  to  this  contrivance 
the  name  of  freHe,  with  reference  to  the  DOsOi  held  apart  by  traverse*.  Travie,  according  to  LirntE  (op.  cit.,  T.  IV,  p.  2325),  denotes  two  side-posts 
connected  by  cross-piece*.     The  various  OOWOpttoM  of  the  term,  trarois,  etc.,  are  probably  Indian  patois. 


30 


TEANSPOET   OF   SICK   AND    WOUNDED 


ity  and  intrepidity  with  which  sailors  construct  a  raft,  yet  does  not  hold  the  commander  hlameless 
if  he  has  neglected  the  precaution  of  life-boats.  It  may  be  assumed  that,  to  introduce  in  our  army 
a  system  of  sick-transport  on  pack-animals,  it  is  requisite  to  provide  suitable  mules  or  ponies  and 
ineu  skilled  in  packing  them.  Opinions  of  officers  charged  with  trains  appear  to  incline  in  favor 
of  the  aparqo  in  preference  to  other  forms  of  pack-saddle.  Major-General  Schofleld,  April  10, 
1874,  promulgated  a  set  of  instructions  by  the  lamented  Lieutenant  Grant,1  on  the  mode  of  pre- 

1  Remarks  on  preparing  and  packing  the  aparejo.  By  Lieutenant  Ai.kxandeu  Grant.  1st  Cavalry  :  "  Tlie  most  suitable  size  of  the  aparejo  is 
four  feet  nine  incbes  long  by  two  feet  wide.  To  set  up  an  aparejo,  prepare  straight  smooth  sticks  from  one-half  to  one  inch  in  diameter  (wild-rose  stems  are 
the  best,  but  any  tough,  elastic  wood  will  answer),  and  the  coarsest  grass  that  can  be  obtained.    The  grass  should  be  cut  green,  free  from  flower-stalks, 

24  inches. 9  Inches.  24  inches. 


III 

:  3 

;  FpptU.  \ 

IN 

M 

0        O        O       O      0       0 

!        i        - 

o      O       O      O       0     o 

Outside. 

Fig.  37. — Interior  view  of  aparejo.— [Grant. 


Fig.  38.— Exterior  view  of  aparejo. — [GitANT.] 


and  dried  slowly  in  the  shade.  Place  the  aparejo  outside  down,  as  in  FIG.  37,  shake  the  grass  thoroughly,  and  place  layer  after  layer  on  the  sticks  until 
the  compartment  is  as  full  as  it  can  be  stuffed  with  the  band.  Great  care  is  necessary  in  order  to  insure  an  equal  distribution  of  the  grass  in  the  compart- 
ment. The  comers  are  6tuffed  as  hard  as  possible,  a  sharp  stick  being  used  for  the  purpose.  "When  stuffed  the  compartment  should  have  uniform  thick- 
ness, and  when  the  aparejo  is  stuffed  it  should  be  put  on  the  mule,  and  the  crupper  adjusted  (FIG.  39).    The  aparejo-cinch  (Fig.  41)  is  made  of  strong 

canvas,  seventy-two  inches  long  and  twenty  inches  wide,  folded  so  as 
to  bring  the  edges  in  the  centre  of  the  cinch.  The  edges  are  stitched 
together,  as  shown  in  FIG.  41.  A  semicircular  piece  of  strong  leather, 
pierced  with  two  holes,  is  stitched  on  one  end,  and  two  loops  of  strong 
leather  on  the  other.  A  slider  of  hard  wood,  of  the  form  shown  in  the 
figure,  is  placed  in  the  loops,  and  a  ring  two  incbes  in  diameter  is  attached 
to  the  semicircular  piece  of  leather  by  a  thong.  The  latigo-strap  is  of  strong 
bridle  leather  seventy-two  inches  long,  an  inch  and  a  half  wide  on  one  end, 
and  tapering  to  half  an  inch  at  the  other.  The  wider  end  has  holes  punched 
in  it,  as  shown  in  the  figure.  A  saddle-blanket,  of  the  pattern  issued  by 
the  Quartermaster's  Department,  is  first  placed  on  the  mule,  and  on  this  a 
corona  or  upper  saddle-blanket,  made  of  two  or  three  folds  of  old  blanket 
stitched  together,  with  the  male's  number  stitched  on  it  in  colored  cloth. 
Two  men  put  the  aparejo  on  the  mule,— No.  1  placing  it  well  back  ;  No.  2 
turning  down  the  crupper,  passing  it  under  the  tail,  and  then  assisting  No.  1 
to  push  the  aparejo  forward  as  far  as  it  will  go.  A  hammer-cloth,  made 
of  matting  or  canvas  of  a  size  to  exactly  cover  the  aparejo,  is  now  laid  on. 
The  hammer  cloth  has  two  pieces  of  hard  wood  (see  FIG.  40),  twenty  inches 
long,  two  inches  wide,  an  inch  and  a  half  thick,  flat  on  one  side,  beveled  to 
aired),"'  at  the  ends,  with  leather  caps  stitched  over  the  ends.  No.  1  passes 
the  aparejo-cinch  to  the  off-side  until  the  slider-end  will  reach  to  the  middle 
of  the.mule's  belly  ;  he  then,  assisted  by  No.  2,  passes  the  latigo-strap  from 
above  over  the  slider,  then  from  the  outside  through  the  ring,  and  again 
over  the  slider,  drawing  it  tight.  No.  2  now  reaches  over  the  mule's  neck, 
seizing  the  front  comers  of  the  aparejo,  drawing  them  forward  and  upward, 
No.  1  at  the  same  time  pulling  on  the  latigo-strap,  When  the  aparejo  is 
set— that  is,  when  the  cinch  is  tight  enough  to  prevent  it  slipping— No.  2 
paalM  around  to  the  near  side  of  the  mule.  No.  1  places  his  left  knee 
against  the  aparejo,  his  left  hand  as  far  down  on  the  latigo-strap  as  possible,  his  right  six  inches  from  his  left.  No.  2,  facing  No.  1,  places  his  right  knee 
against  the  aparejo,  his  right  hand  between  No.  1's  bands  and  his  left  hand  close  to  No.  l's  right,  and  both  draw  on  the  lat.go-strap,  movmg  the*  hands 

forward  as  the  cinch  is  ti  ghtened,  when  No.  1  passes  a  double  of  the  latigo-strap  through  the  loop 
on  the  cinch  and  draws  it  tight.  The  packers  are  provided  with  a  sling-rope  of  half-inch  hemp, 
sixteen  feet  long,  and  a  lash-rope  thirty-six  feet  long,  one  end  spliced  to  a  ring  in  the  pack-cinch. 
This  cinch  is  of  strong  canvas,  thirty-three  inches  long  by  eleven  inches  wide,  doubled  so  as  to 
bring  the  selvages  in  the  middle  of  thecinch,  where  they  are  stitched  as  in  the  a|«ir.'j...ohich.  Two 
rectangular  pieces  of  strong  leather  eight  inches  long  by  Ave  and  one-half  inches  wide  are 
stitched  on  one 


FIG.  39. — Aparejo,  with  crupper.— [GRANT. 


Latiyo  Strap. 


Bammer      Cloth/. 


FIG.  40 Hammer-cloth  and  Latigo-strap.—  [GRANT. 


end  on  either 
side.  They  are 
of  the  forms 
shown  at  a,  6, 
Fig.  42.  A 
piece  of  strong 
leather  is  cut 


3 


{    [^VWW^A***.N*«>W*»^%NV^V*^ 


Fig.  41. — Mexican  cinch  (or  synch).— [GitANT 


of  the  form  shown  at  c,  Flo.  42,  the  circles  being  five  and  one  half  inches  in  diameter. 

these  are  folded  on  each  other  with  the  canvas  cinch  between  them,  and  the  whole  firmly  stitched  together. 

form  shown  at  rf,  FIG,  42. 

pack  No.  1  takes  the  sling-rope, 

places  it  well  up  on  the  aparejo,  holding  it  there  with  his  left  hand 


A  ring  three  inches  in  diameter  is  placed  between  the  circles,  and 
he  hook  is  made  of  hard  wood  of  the 


tier  won  me   cau»tio  i    u»'.^»    ....-...,  ~ -■ -  ~  .  ... 

It  is  passed  through  the  slit  in  the  rectangular  piece  of  leather,  and  firmly  fastened  with  a  leather  thong.    In  putting  on  the 

ope,  doubles  it,  and  passes  the  loop  well  over  on  the  off-side  ,  No.  2  raises  the  part  of  the  load  intended  for  Ins  sale  of  the  pao.  and 

'.'...        ....  «  ,  .  .j      «■»•..■.  t.i.  -:_i..  i.„„j  h„  than  mora  the  loon  of  the  shng-ropc  over  the  load  to 


With  his  right  hand  he  then  passes  the  loop  of  the  sling-rope  over  I 


BY   PACK    ANIMALS. 


31 


paring  and  packing  this  form  of  saddle,  instructions  so  important  that  a  condensed  abstract  of 
them,  with  illustrations,  is  placed  in  a  foot  note.  The  cross-tree1  and  other  patterns  of  pack-saddles 
have  also  tbeir  advocates.  Ambulance-chairs  and  litters  could  probably  be  adjusted  with  almost 
equal  facility  to  several  varieties  of  pack-saddles;  what  is  essential  is  that  there  should  be  trained 
mules  or  ponies2  and  skilled  packers.  Until  these  iudispensable  adjuncts  are  provided,  the 
improved  cacolets  and  litters  found  useful  in  European  armies  cannot  be  advantageously  employed 
in  our  service,  and  medical  officers  will  probably  resort  in  emergencies  to  the  Indian  drag  or  trav6e,3 


*^**«^^^%"** 


□  □COcfe) 


<sa 


FIG.  42. — Fittings  Of  pack-cinch. 


FIG.  43.— Outside  ami  inside  view  of  the  i>uck- 
einch. 


No.  1,  who  panes  the  ends  of  the  sling-rope  through  the  loop  and  draws  them  tight.    No.  1  then  places  the  part  of  the  load  intended  for  his  side 

of  the  pttk  on  the  aparejo  against  that  already  there,  ami.  holding  it  with  his  left  hand,  he  passes  one 
end  of  Ail  sling-rope  to  No.  ■-».  who  carries  it  under  either  branch  of  the  rope  already  round  the  pack  on 
his  side  and  hand*  it  hark  to  Xo.  I,  who  brings  both  ends  of  the  sling-rope  together,  draws  them  tight, 
and  ties  them  in  a  square  knot.     The  two  MM  then  adjust  the  load  to  balance  it  equally  and  place  the 

pack-cover,  a  hemmed  piece  of  canvas  five  feet 
__  !_  „  _  square,  over  the  load.     No.  1  then  takes  the  lnsh- 

RM,  coiled  in  his  right  hand,  grasps  it  near  the 

cinch  with  his  left  hand,  and  throws  the  rope  to 

its  lull  extent  to  his  right.    He  passes  the  cinch 

under  the  mule,  hook   from  him,    and,   without 

moving  the  cinch,  he  places  the   rope  on  the 
centre  of  the  pack  lengthwise  (Flo.  44).     He  then  moves  to  the  mule's  shoulder  and  draws  the  rope  forward  two-thirds  of  its  length,   and,  seizing 
it  alM.ut  six  feet  from  the  cinch,  he  passes  it  double  to  No.  2.    No.  2  takes  this  double  in  his  right  hand  and  the  hook  of  the  cinch  in  his  left;  he 
moves  his  hands  until  he  can  feel  that  it  is  tight,  when  he 
pawn)  the  rear  branch  of  the  rope  from  above  into  the  hook 
and  passes  the  slack  back  to  No.  1.    No.  I  draws  this  slack 
tight  with  his  left  hand,  and  passing  bis  right  hand  under 
bis  left  he  seizes  the  rope  in  front  of  the  park  and  passes  it 
to  the  rear;  he  then  passes  the  part  of  the  rope  in  his  left 
hand    under  the  standing  branch  from  rear  to  front,  and 
draws  it  well  tip  on  the  pack ;  he  then  pushes  the  bight 
thus  formed  below  the  fWJO.     No.  2,  in  the  meantime, 
takes  the  end  of  the  .rope  and  passes  it   under  the  front 
standing  branch  on  his  side,  from  rear  to  front,  pushing  it  to 
the  top  of  the  pack,  and  throwing  the  end  in  front  of  the 
pack  on  No.   l's  side;    he   then    seizes  the  front  standing 
branch  with  both  hands,  well  down,  placing  his  left  knee 
against  the  aparejo  ;  he  is  now  ready  to  pull.     No'.  1  seizes 
the  front  branch  on  his  side,  and  places  his  left  shoulder 
against  the  pack;  he  then  says  'pull.'     No.  2  pulls,  and 
No.  1  takes  in  the  slack;  this  is  continued  until  No.  1  says 
'enough.'    No.  2  leads  the  mule  forward,  while  No.  1  sees  that  the  pack  is  balanced.    No.  1  passes  to  the  rear,  and  pulls  the  branch  under  the  aparejo 
tight.     No.  2  passes  to  the  rear,  pulls  the  branch  on  his  side  tight,  and  passes  it  forward  under  the  points  of  the  aparejo.     No.  T  goes  to  the  mule's  shoulder 
on  his  owu  side,  takes  the  end  of  the  rope,  draws  it  tight,  brings  it  down  under  the  points  of  the  aparejo  and  back  to  the  centre  of  the  pack,  where  he 
fastens  it  by  drawing  it  under  the  standing  branches,  or,  if  it  is  too  long,  he  passes  it  to  No.  2,  to  be  fastened  in  the  same  manner. 
Dr.  D.  L.  Huntington,  U.  S.  A.,  and  other  medical  officers,  who  have  served  west  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  frequently  advert  to  the  so-called  cross-tree  saddle  used  by  the  traders 
and  explorers  of  New  Mexico  and  the  Northwest,  and  the  employes  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  in  transporting  their  stores  and  peltries.    Loud  and  Baines  {op.  cit.,  p.  465)  give 


or 

I 

1   Side. 
■j 

AearSide. 

Fig.  44. — Diagram  showing  the  manner  in  which  the  lash-rope  passes  round  a  paek. 


figures  of  two  forms  of 
this  saddle:  one  (Fig. 
45)  the  usual  form ; 
another  (FIG.  46)  made 
with  natural  forked 
branehes.  The  girth 
BMd  with  this  descrip- 
FlG.  45—  Hudson  Bay  cross-  tiou  of  saddle  is  made 
tree  saddle.     (After  U)UD  &   m  two  Jjartl4i  whh  , .v,.. 

lets  at  the  end  so  that 


Bums.] 


Flu.  47.— Mule  laden  with  pack  on  cross- 
tree  saddle.— [Iitin.J 


they  may  be  laced  to- 
gether with  a  strip  of 
hide.  FIG.  47  repre- 
sents a  mule  laden  with 
a  pack  of  this  descrip- 
tion. Francis  Galton 
(Artof  Travel,  or  Shift* 
and  Expedient*  avaiU 
able  in  Wild  Countries, 
London,  1855,  p.   129), 


FIG.  46. — Modified  cross- 
tree  saddle.— [lnib.  | 


FIG.  49.— Joint  of    bent 
pieces,     (After  (i  ALTON.  ] 


gives  the  following  directions  for  improvised  pack-saddles:  "Cut  four  bent  pieces  of  tough  wood  and  two  small  planks, 
season  them  as  well  as  you  can  and  join  them  together,  as  in  the  drawing,  using  raw-hide 
in  addition  to  nails  or  pegs.  Stuffed  cushions  must  be  tied,  or  otherwise  secured,  inside 
the  planks.  The  art  of  good  packing  is  to  balance  the  packs  accurately,  and  to  lash  them 
very  tightly  to  the  saddle.  The  entire  load  is  then  secured  to  the  animal's  back  by  mode- 
Fig.  48. -Pack-saddle  tree,  rate  girthing.  It  is  going  on  a  false  principle  to  wind  one  long  cord  round  the  horse,  saddle, 
(Alter  u ALTON.)  Ull(|  j*^^  making,  as  it  were,  a  great  faggot  of  them." 

*A  pony  is  defined  byCOWTKlt:  "a  small  horse;  a  horse  less  than  fourteen  hands  high."  S.  Johnson  says,  "perhaps  from  puny ;''  but  the 
ordinary  significance  of  the  term  is  the  reverse  of  this, — stout-built,  compact,  and  strong  animals  arc  often  thus  designated.  Measuring  at  the  fore-leg  and 
shoulder,  reekoning  a  hand  at  four  inehes,  a  horse  under  fifty-six  inches  in  height  is  usually  styled  a  pony ;  but  this  definition  is  not  rigidly  attended  to 
in  praetiee.  < ;.  It.  M<  (  i.KLLA.x,  in  his  Iteport  on  European  Armies  in  1855-56,  states  (op.  cit.,  p.  248)  that  in  the  French  service  the  average  height  of 
pack-horses  was  fixed  at  14  hands  1£  inch  to  15  hands  1  inch,  and  that  of  pack-mules  at  13  hands  3  inches  to  15  hands  1J  inch. 

■In  the  Prairie  Travrller,  p.  153,  General  MAKCY  relates  that:  "  The  prairie  Indians  have  a  way  of  transporting  their  sick  and  children  upon  a 
litter  very  similar  in  MMtlWlIm  to  the  one  just  described,  exeepting  that  one  animal  is  used  instead  of  two.  One  end  of  the  litter  is  made  fast  to  the 
sides  of  the  animal,  while  the  other  end  is  left  to  trail  upon  the  ground.  A  projection  is  raised  for  the  feet  to  rest  against  and  prevent  the  patient  from 
sliding  down.  Instead  of  canvas,  the  Indians  sometimes  lash  a  large  willow  basket  across  the  poles,  in  which  they  place  the  person  to  be  transported. 
The  animals  liaraessed  to  the  litter  must  be  carefully  eomlueted  upon  the  march,  and  caution  used  in  passitig  over  rough  and  broken  ground. 


32 


TRANSPORT   OF   SICK    AND    WOUNDED    BY   PACK   ANIMALS. 


or  to  the  two-horse  litter,  conveyances  that  have  been  fully  described  in  the  preceding  pages. 
As  I  close  this  report,  the  following  communication  is  received  from  New  Orleans,  dated  March, 
1877,  from  Assistant  Medical  Purveyor  E.  Swift,  U.  S.  A : 

"During  the  Mexican  war,  Lieutenant  Schuyler  Hamilton,  aide  to  General  Scott,  was  severely  wounded  by  a  lance,  two 
and  a  half  inches  wide,  thrusted  six  and  a  half  inches  into  the  right  lung  from  behind,  at  Mille  Flores,  a  foundry  where  shot  and 
shell  were  being  manufactured  for  the  Mexican  army.  The  lieutenant  was  conveyed  a  short  distance  to  headquarters  at  Chalco, 
where  a  horse-litter  was  constructed  of  tent-cloth  and  two  long  canal-boat  setting-poles — the  extremities  of  the  poles  serving  as 
shafts,  to  which  were  harnessed  a  horse  or  mule  in  front  and  rear  of  the  patient;  on  this  litter  he  travelled  comfortably  several 
days,  with  the  army  on  its  march  to  the  city  of  Mexico.  Many  sick  and  wounded  were  conveyed  to  the  coast  from  the  city  of 
Mexico  on  litters  provided  with  a  covered  frame-work  for  protection  from  the  sun  and  rain.  Litters  were  frequently  improvised 
and  made  temporarily  by  means  of  blankets  knotted  at  the  four  corners  to  two  muskets;  also  a  blanket  passing  under  the  arm 
and  knotted  over  the  opposite  shoulders  of  two  men,  forming  a  seat  between  them,  on  which  the  patient  was  conveyed  in  com- 
parative ease  and  comfort.  Sometimes,  wounded  men  were  carried  off  the  Held  on  the  backs  of  their  comrades.  I  have  also 
known  wounded  to  be  carried  upon  the  backs  of  men,  in  a  kind  of  chair,  after  the  manner  of  conveying  travellers  over  mountains 
in  South  America.  The  well-known  Indian  travois,  rudely  constructed  of  long  poles  and  buffalo-hide — one  end  harnessed  to  a 
mule  or  horse  while  the  other  trails  on  the  ground — almost  equals  the  comfort  presented  in  the  first-described  method,  which  I 
deem  the  best." 

It  was  my  design  to  treat  somewhat  more  in  detail  of  the  different  forms  of  cacolets  and  of 

double  and  single  mule-litters  used  in  foreign  armies;  but  the  limits  allotted  to  this  report  are 

already  attained  if  not  exceeded.    For  particulars  regarding  the  conveyances  of  Hill,  Shortell,  and 

Locati,  I  must  refer  to  the  admirable  treatise  ou  the  transport  of  sick  and 

wounded  troops  by  Surgeon-General  T.  Longmore,  my  indebtedness  to  which 

I  have  repeatedly  had  occasion  to  acknowledge,  and  for  descriptions  of  other 

European  forms  of  cacolets  and  litters  to  the  writings  of  MM.  Legouest, 

Pirogoff,  Gurlt,  Van  Dommelen,  Grossheim,  and  others  who  have  been  cited 

in  this  report.    The  single  mule-litter  of  M.  Locati,  of  Turin,  desigued  for 

the  passage  of  the  narrowest  defiles,  avoiding  as  far  as  possible  obstructions 

from  tree-branches  overhead  or  impediments  on  either  side,  is  regarded  in 

Europe  as  about  the  best  appliance  of  this  sort.    A  cross-section  of  it  is 

shown  in  the  adjacent  wood-cut.    Assistant  Surgeon  W.  J.  Wilson,  U.  S.  A., 

who  recently  accompanied  an  incursion  of  the  troops  of  the  Khedive  upon 

no.  so.— locatis  single    the  Abyssinians,  informs  me  that  camels  were  there  advantageously  used 

mule-litter.  [AfterLONGMOKE.]  .   ,  '  .  _  .  _         ,  ,  , 

for  sick  transport  by  the  Egyptian  troops.  I  had  prepared  woodcuts  ot  the 
camel-litters  used  by  Larrey  in  the  campaign  in  Syria,  and  the  camelkujawahs  used  in  the  Pun- 
jaub,  devised  by  Surgeon  W.  B.  Webb  of  the  Bengal  service,  but  have  not  space  to  introduce 
them,  and  must  again  refer  to  the  exhaustive  work  of  Professor  Longmore,  and  to  the  memoirs 
and  historical  and  surgical  relation  of  the  Armee  d'Orient  of  the  illustrious  Larrey,  for  informa- 
tion on  this  means  of  sick-transport,  apparently  well  adapted  for  army  use  in  Texas,  New  Mexico, 
and  Arizona. 

Whatever  incompleteness,  there  may  be  in  this  report  as  a  theoretical  disquisition,  the  prac- 
tical views  and  suggestions  advanced  by  a  considerable  number  of  experienced  medical  officers 
cannot  fail  to  receive  your  appreciation. 

I  am,  General,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  A.  OTIS, 

Assistant  Surgeon,  U.  S.  A. 

Brigadier-General  Joseph  K.  Barnes, 

Surgeon  General  U.  S.  A. 


O 


14  DAY  USE 

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